Vienna / Seoul: North Korea seems to have restarted the nuclear reactor which is widely believed to have produced plutonium for nuclear weapons, the UN Watchdog said in the annual report, highlighting the efforts of isolated countries to expand its weapons.
Signs of operation in the 5 megawatt reactor (MW), which was seen as able to produce weapons class plutonium, was the first to be seen since the end of 2018, said the International Atomic Energy Agency in the report on Friday.
“Since the beginning of July 2021, there are indications, including cooling water disposal, consistent with the operation,” the IAEA report, said the reactor in Yongbyon, a nuclear complex at the heart of the North Korean nuclear program.
IAEA did not have access to North Korea since Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2009.
The country is subsequently suppressed with its nuclear weapons program and immediately continues nuclear testing.
His last nuclear test was in 2017.
The IAEA now monitors North Korea from afar, mostly through satellite imagery.
The commercial satellite image shows the water discharge, supports the conclusion that the reactor runs back, said Jenny Town, Director 38 North Project based in the US, which monitors North Korea.
“There is no way to find out why the reactor is not operating before – even though the work has been going on at the Water Reservoir for the past year to ensure enough water for the cooling system,” he said.
“The time seems to be a little strange to me, given the tendency of flooding in a few weeks or coming months that can affect reactor operations.” Last year 38 North said the flood in August might have damaged the pump house related to Yongbyon, highlighting how vulnerable to the nuclear reactor cooling system was an extreme weather event.
Seasonal rain brings flooding in several regions of this year, the government’s media said, but there have been no reports but threats to the site, the Center for Yongbyon’s nuclear scientific research.
The main nuclear site on the 2019 Summit in Vietnam with US President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong UNS offered to dismantle Yongbyon in exchange for assistance from various international sanctions on nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
When Trump said he rejected the deal because Yongbyon was only one part of the northern nuclear program, and was not enough of the concession to ensure loosening so many sanctions.
The administration of US President Joe Biden said it reached North Korea to offer talks, but Pyongyang said he was not interested in negotiating without policy changes by the United States.
“There has been no agreement that regulates this facility for a long time now,” said Joshua Pollack, a researcher at the Non -Foliferation Center James Martin (CNS).
In June, the ulaEA ethnic indication of the possibility of reprocessing works in Yongbyon to separate plutonium from used reactor fuel that can be used in nuclear weapons.
In the Friday report, the agency said the five-month duration of the clear work, from mid-February to the beginning of July, suggested a large number of used fuel dealt with, in contrast to shorter times needed for waste processing or maintaining.
“The new indication of a 5MW reactor operation (e) and radiochemical laboratory (reprocessing) is very disturbing,” he said in the report, which was issued without notice.
There are also indications of mining activities and concentrations in the uranium and plant mines in Pyongsan, and activities in secret enrichment facilities allegedly in Kangson, he added.
This is a safe bet that North Korea intends on newly separated plutonium for weapons, said Pollack, adding that in this year’s speech Kim provides a long list of advanced weapons in development, including more nuclear bombs.
“North Korean appetite for upstream has not been adjusted, it looks like.”