ISIS warns of Pakistan's latest nuclear drive

Pakistan's Shaheen-II missile can carry a nuclear warhead.

A US arms control institute has warned that Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs could threaten the region. "Pakistan is indeed progressing in a strategic plan to improve the destructiveness and deliverability of its nuclear arsenal," the Institute for Science and International Security said. The institute released satellite photos on Tuesday that showed the expansion of a chemical plant complex near Dera Ghazi Khan. The plant produces uranium hexalfuoride and uranium metal, materials used to produce nuclear weapons, the ISIS report said. Photos also suggested the Pakistanis "have added a second plutonium separation plant adjacent to the old one" at a site near Rawalpindi, according to the report. The expansion would enable Pakistan to build smaller, lighter plutonium-fission weapons and thermonuclear weapons that employ "plutonium as the nuclear trigger and enriched and natural enriched uranium in the secondary," it said. The ISIS report stated that the nuclear progress "complicates efforts to improve the security of Pakistan's nuclear assets." In response, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that its nuclear programs were not "static". "Our nuclear deterrence is an indispensable factor of stability in the region," the Foreign Ministry statement asserted.