International
North Korea seeks to break into the US presidential elections with its uranium centrifuges

By showing for the first time its facilities to manufacture fuel for nuclear bombs this Friday, North Korea is positioned to acquire prominence in the campaign for the presidential elections in the United States while the fear increases that it will soon carry out a large-scale weapons test.
It is a forceful gesture on the part of the regime of Kim Jong-un, which these days visited a plant full of cascades of uranium centrifuges – apparently more advanced than initially estimated by the experts – and ordered to increase the number of these devices “to exponentially increase the number of nuclear weapons.”
These are some keys to try to decipher this calculated message that Pyongyang – which since 2019 has refused to resume the dialogue on disarmament – has decided to issue with just over seven weeks to go for the Americans to elect a new president.
A gloomy uranium enrichment program
Few details are known about how, where and how much uranium is capable of enriching North Korea, as well as the level of concentration of isotopes of the resulting material (the higher the concentration of uranium-235, the more fligible the fuel of the pump).
Until now, North Korea had only shown in 2010 some facilities at the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center (about 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang) to the American scientist Siegfried Hecker, who estimated that the place housed about 2,000 gas centrifuges – a more outdated model than the one shown on Friday – to produce low-enrichment uranium.
Intelligence services and analysts assume that the regime has at least another processing center in Kangson, on the outskirts of the North Korean capital.
It is this Kangson enclosure that is believed to have been shown by the North Korean media (which do not mention the location of the plant), since they claim that Kim Jong-un visited the surface under construction for new centrifuges, something that agrees with a recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that warns that an annex is being built in this complex located southwest of Pyongyang.
The chosen moment
The vast majority of experts believe that North Korea has chosen to show its centrifuges a few weeks before the US elections to regain prominence at a time when its weapons programs did not come to light even once in this week’s debate between candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as they did not do in June between Trump and Joe Biden.
Although North Korea is not an issue that currently conditions the vote of the Americans, the message that Pyongyang has sent today is that it will be an issue that will require attention from those who inherit the presidency from Biden.
“For Trump the message is ‘after the fiasco of (the summit of) Hanoi our atomic program goes ahead. If you want to stop it, you will have to sit down and negotiate.’ And for Harris it’s a bit the same; ‘Biden’s policy has failed, you’ll see if you want to sit down and negotiate,’” Ramón Pacheco Pardo, director of the chair on politics on the Korean peninsula at the Free University of Brussels, explains to EFE.
Pacheco Pardo is one of those who believe that Pyongyang is willing to resume dialogue to lower sanctions or achieve a security agreement, but in terms different from those of 2019 in Hanoi, since today’s announcement endorses what Pyongyang has been saying in recent years: that there is no longer any possibility of him abandoning nuclear weapons.
What to expect in the coming weeks
Seoul and Washington and different experts have warned in recent weeks about the possibility of Pyongyang choosing to carry out just – before or after the presidential elections in the US – important weapons of mass destruction tests to get the attention of the new tenant of the White House.
It could be the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), possibly equipped with a multiple and independent re-entry vehicle (like the one tested in June), to show once again that North Korea can theoretically reach the US. This possibility charges integers after Pyongyang showed a new and impressive 12-axle mobile erector shuttle (TEL) last week.
A nuclear test now seems a little more unlikely, not only because it is something that can always anger China and Russia (which support the lifting of sanctions on Pyongyang), but because the damage caused by the monsoon in the accesses to the remote test center of Punggye-ri (northeast of the country) and recently detected by the satellites will require important repairs in the coming weeks.
International
Paraguay summons Brazilian ambassador over Itaipú espionage scandal

Paraguay summoned the Brazilian ambassador in Asunción on Tuesday to demand “explanations” and called its own representative in Brasília for consultations following Brazil’s acknowledgment of an espionage operation. The Brazilian government, led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, attributed the operation to the previous administration.
The surveillance effort aimed to uncover Paraguay’s position in now-suspended negotiations with Brazil regarding the pricing of electricity from the binational Itaipú hydroelectric plant, according to reports in the Brazilian press.
The Brazilian government “categorically denied any involvement in the intelligence operation,” stating in a Foreign Ministry communiqué on Monday that the espionage was carried out under former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration (2019-2023).
“The operation was authorized by the previous government in June 2022 and was annulled by the interim director of the (state intelligence agency) ABIN on March 27, 2023, as soon as the current administration became aware of it,” Brazil’s government asserted.
Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez announced that Brazilian Ambassador José Antonio Marcondes de Carvalho was summoned “to provide detailed explanations” regarding the operation. Additionally, Paraguay recalled its diplomatic representative in Brasília “to report on aspects related to the intelligence activity conducted by Brazil regarding Paraguay’s government affairs.”
International
Elon Musk to step down as government advisor, per Trump insiders

President Donald Trump has informed his inner circle that Elon Musk will be stepping down from his role as a government advisor, according to a report by Politico today.
Citing three individuals close to Trump, Politico states that the president is pleased with Musk’s leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he has implemented significant budget cuts. However, both have agreed that it is time for Musk to return to his businesses and support Trump from a different position outside the government.
A senior administration official told Politico that Musk will likely maintain an informal advisory role and continue to be an occasional visitor to the White House. Another source warned that anyone thinking Musk will completely disappear from Trump’s circle is “deluding themselves.”
According to the sources, this transition is expected to coincide with the end of Musk’s tenure as a “special government employee,” a temporary status that exempts him from certain ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations. This 130-day period is set to expire in late May or early June.
International
Milei vows to make Argentina so strong that Falkland Islanders “choose” to join

Argentine President Javier Milei reaffirmed his country’s claim over the Falkland Islands (known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina) and praised the role of the nation’s armed forces during a ceremony marking the “Veterans and Fallen Soldiers of the Malvinas War Day,” commemorating 43 years since the 1982 conflict with the United Kingdom.
Argentina continues to assert sovereignty over the islands, arguing that Britain unlawfully seized them in 1833.
“If sovereignty over the Malvinas is the issue, we have always made it clear that the most important vote is the one cast with one’s feet. We hope that one day, the Malvinas residents will choose to vote with their feet and join us,” Milei stated.
“That is why we aim to become a global power—so much so that they would prefer to be Argentine, making deterrence or persuasion unnecessary. This is why we have embarked on a path of liberation, working to make Argentina the freest country in the world and once again the nation with the highest GDP per capita on the planet,” he added.
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