The claim printed in the DPRK’s state-run KCNA news service comes just a week after the DPRK shelled a Republic of Korean Island killing four people.

"The construction of light water reactor is brisk in the DPRK and a modern factory for uranium enrichment equipped with thousands of centrifuges is operating to supply fuel to them. The development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes to meet the need for electricity will be stepped up in the future," the news service report said.

The DPRK news service report seemed to confirm parts of a statement made last week by Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University scientist.

In early November, the US scientist said he visited a DPRK nuclear facility at the invitation of the government, which included 2,000 centrifuges, that was producing low-enriched uranium.