UN Atomic Agency Ensures North Korea Shuts Down Nuclear Bomb Producing Reactors

FAULT – There are no signs North Korea (North) reprocessing spent fuel from nuclear reactors primarily into plutonium in the past year. Even so, North Korea continues to enrich uranium, another potential fuel for nuclear weapons.

As soon as the report was issued by the UN atomic watchdog, IAEA.

The IAEA has had no access to North Korea since the reclusive communist state expelled its inspectors in 2009. Pyongyang has continued to advance with its nuclear weapons program and immediately resumed nuclear tests. The last test of its nuclear weapons took place in 2017.

Since his expulsion, the IAEA has been monitoring North Korea’s activity remotely, including with satellite imagery.

“It is almost certain that the 5 megawatt test reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which is widely believed to have produced plutonium for weapons, has been shut down since early December 2018,” the IAEA said in its annual report dated Sept. 1 and posted online. Reuters, Wednesday (2/9/2020).

However, there is no evidence of vapor in the plutonium reprocessing lab there yet, suggesting that spent fuel is staying in the reactor building.(Also read: Location of North Korea’s Nuclear Reactor Threatened by Flood, Damaged Pump House)

“It is almost certain that no reprocessing activity took place and the plutonium produced at the 5MW reactor during the most recent operational cycle has not been separated,” the IAEA report said, adding that construction appears to be continuing at the Yongbyon water reactor.

By contrast, the IAEA said, the movement of vehicles and the operation of refrigeration units at a fuel rod fabrication plant in Yongbyon suggest North Korea is producing uranium enriched by centrifuges there.

North Korea can also enrich uranium at a facility outside Pyongyang known as Kangson which has only attracted attention as a potential enrichment site in recent years.

“The construction of this complex at Kangson occurred prior to the construction of the reported centrifugal enrichment facility at Yongbyon, which shares several characteristics,” said the IAEA.

“If the Kangson complex were a centrifugal enrichment facility, this would be consistent with the chronology of developments in the uranium enrichment program reported by the DPRK,” the IAEA continued, using the official name of North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.(Also read: UN Alleged North Korea Developed Nuclear Warheads for Ballistic Missiles)

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