North Korea planning to restart its nuke reactor
Source: Agencies |
April 3, 2013, Wednesday
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North Korea has said it is to escalate production of nuclear weapons material, including restarting a long-shuttered plutonium reactor.
A spokesman for North Korea's General Department of Atomic Energy said yesterday that scientists will quickly begin work "readjusting and restarting" a uranium enrichment plant and a graphite-moderated, 5-megawatt reactor that could produce a bomb's worth of plutonium each year.
Experts considered the uranium announcement to be a public declaration from North Korea that it will make highly enriched uranium that could be used for bomb fuel.
The plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down in 2007 as part of international nuclear disarmament talks that have since stalled.
It wasn't immediately clear if North Korea had already begun work to restart facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex. Experts estimate it could take anywhere from three months to a year to reactivate the reactor.
The announcement will boost concerns in Washington and among its allies about North Korea's timetable for building a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the United States, although it is still believed to be years away from developing that technology.
The North Korean atomic spokesman said the measure is meant to resolve the country's acute electricity shortage but is also for "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity," according to a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
Kim Jin Moo, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said that by announcing it is "readjusting" all nuclear facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant, North Korea "is blackmailing the international community by suggesting that it will now produce weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium."
North Korea's plutonium reactor generates spent fuel rods laced with plutonium and is the core of Nyongbyon.
It was disabled under a 2007 deal made at now-dormant aid-for-disarmament negotiations involving North Korea, the US, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
In 2008, North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at Nyongbyon in a show of commitment, but the deal later stalled after North Korea balked at allowing intensive international fact-checking of its past nuclear activities.
Pyongyang pulled out of the talks after international condemnation of its long-range rocket test in April 2009.
North Korea added its 5-megawatt plutonium reactor to its nuclear complex at Nyongbyon in 1986, and Pyongyang is believed to have exploded plutonium devices in its first two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
There have long been claims by the US and others that North Korea was also pursuing a secret uranium program.
In 2010, North Korea unveiled to visiting Americans a uranium enrichment program at the Nyongbyon complex.
A spokesman for North Korea's General Department of Atomic Energy said yesterday that scientists will quickly begin work "readjusting and restarting" a uranium enrichment plant and a graphite-moderated, 5-megawatt reactor that could produce a bomb's worth of plutonium each year.
Experts considered the uranium announcement to be a public declaration from North Korea that it will make highly enriched uranium that could be used for bomb fuel.
The plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down in 2007 as part of international nuclear disarmament talks that have since stalled.
It wasn't immediately clear if North Korea had already begun work to restart facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex. Experts estimate it could take anywhere from three months to a year to reactivate the reactor.
The announcement will boost concerns in Washington and among its allies about North Korea's timetable for building a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the United States, although it is still believed to be years away from developing that technology.
The North Korean atomic spokesman said the measure is meant to resolve the country's acute electricity shortage but is also for "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity," according to a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
Kim Jin Moo, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said that by announcing it is "readjusting" all nuclear facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant, North Korea "is blackmailing the international community by suggesting that it will now produce weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium."
North Korea's plutonium reactor generates spent fuel rods laced with plutonium and is the core of Nyongbyon.
It was disabled under a 2007 deal made at now-dormant aid-for-disarmament negotiations involving North Korea, the US, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
In 2008, North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at Nyongbyon in a show of commitment, but the deal later stalled after North Korea balked at allowing intensive international fact-checking of its past nuclear activities.
Pyongyang pulled out of the talks after international condemnation of its long-range rocket test in April 2009.
North Korea added its 5-megawatt plutonium reactor to its nuclear complex at Nyongbyon in 1986, and Pyongyang is believed to have exploded plutonium devices in its first two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
There have long been claims by the US and others that North Korea was also pursuing a secret uranium program.
In 2010, North Korea unveiled to visiting Americans a uranium enrichment program at the Nyongbyon complex.
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