North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear facilities, including the main reactor and the smaller plant at Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of an global disarmament-for-aid deal that later collapsed.
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The reactor was shut down in 2007 but Pyongyang said past year that it was operational again. Because of North Korea’s greater isolation from the Internet and the government’s tight control over computer access, that malware effort was unsuccessful.
“There are indications the reprocessing plant at Yongbyon has been reactivated”.
Airbus Defence and Space imagery captured in February shows activity at a steam plant that services the plutonium reprocessing facility at Yongbyon.
It is also unclear how much plutonium the North can produce through the process.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says North Korea has restarted its nuclear facility at Yongbyon, North Korea.
“Resumption of the activities of the five megawatt reactor, the expansion of centrifuge-related facility, reprocessing – these are some of the examples (of evidence)”, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said at a news conference, according to Reuters. They added that the plant was working on improving the “quality and quantity” of its nuclear weapons.
Experts reportedly say that the reactor is capable of manufacturing one bomb’s worth of plutonium a year.
South Korea said Wednesday it is closely monitoring North Korea’s nuclear activities amid reports the communist country has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to produce plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.
North Korea has come under tightening worldwide pressure over its nuclear weapons program, including tougher United Nations sanctions adopted in March backed by its lone major ally China, following its most recent nuclear test in January.
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Indicators of activity highlighted by author of the analysis, Joseph Bermudez, include the presence of railroad flatcars, exhaust plumes from the Radiochemical Laboratory’s thermal plant and the replenishment of coal piles adjacent to the plant.
