Iran nuclear destruction propaganda

[Anchor]

As doubts continue over whether the U.S. has completely destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities, the Trump administration is emphasizing the success of the operation day after day.

Iran, while claiming that the damage to its nuclear facilities is significant, argued that expecting surrender is nonsense.

Reporter Hong Jin-ah has the details.

[Report]

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth strongly criticized media reports questioning whether the core of Iran's nuclear facilities has been destroyed.

He stated that the media is only looking for scandals and trying to manipulate public opinion.

[Pete Hegseth/Secretary of Defense: "...because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn't successful."]

He also revealed additional details about the airstrike.

Showing a test video of a super powerful bunker buster, he explained that the bunker buster was accurately dropped on the ventilation shaft of Iran's Fordow nuclear facility and exploded inside.

The White House stated that there are no signs that the enriched uranium, which is the raw material for nuclear weapons, was moved elsewhere before the airstrike.

However, doubts continue in U.S. political circles about whether the airstrike was as successful as announced.

Democratic senators who received reports from the Department of Defense criticized President Trump for intentionally providing false information.

[Chris Murphy/Democratic Senator: "To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program, by a handful of months."]

Iran has changed its stance and has begun to publicly mention that the damage to its nuclear facilities is significant, which is interpreted as an attempt to use the extent of the damage as leverage if negotiations resume.

Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei claimed in his first video address after the ceasefire that expecting Iran's surrender is a ridiculous notion.

This is KBS News, Hong Jin-ah.