A U.S.-based North Korea monitoring website says recent reports on nuclear waste leakage in North Korea is alarming not because of its environmental impact, but because it implies the regime’s continuing efforts to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. 

38 North’s argument, published Tuesday, built on the claim raised earlier this month by U.S. independent researcher Jacob Bogle, who observed through commercial satellite imagery radioactive materials leaked from a uranium mine and concentration plant near in the North. 

Bogle had claimed toxic waste from the plant is flowing into the Ryesong River and could eventually pollute waters west of the Korean Peninsula. 

38 North argued that the observed leakage from the waste-carrying pipelines is less extensive than what was earlier reported. 

What the site says can inferred, however, from the waste leakage is that the North may be “continuing and prioritizing its program to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.”