[Courtesy of Xinhua News]
North Korea could have acquired plutonium at its main nuclear complex, enough to produce one to three atomic bombs, since a five-megawatt reactor was reactivated in mid-2013, a US research institute reported.
There are growing indications that North Korea is separating plutonium from irradiated fuel from the reactor, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said in a report posted on its website, based on analyses of satellite imagery and interviews with government officials who monitor nuclear activity in the nuclear-armed country.
Pyongyang has built various nuclear facilities at the Yongbyon complex, including a reprocessing lab and a five-megawatt reactor which has been used to acquire plutonium. The reactor was once mothballed under a deal between Pyongyang and Washington, but North Korea reactivated it from mid-2013.
"Recently, a government official who monitors the situation closely stated to the ISIS that it is possible that North Korea may have started reprocessing the spent fuel from the reactor," it said.
It is hard to verify any information related to North Korea's nuclear activity, but the US institute said the reactor is believed to have produced about three to four kilograms of plutonium over a one-year period since it restarted.
"In total, the reactor could have produced an estimated five to seven kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium since its 2013 restart ... enough for one to three nuclear weapons, the institute said on the assumption it had operated intermittently since mid-2014.
The oversized reprocessing lab in Yongbyon has been built to handle not only spent fuel from the five-megawatt reactor but also from a 50-megawatt reactor under construction, it said. "It can process all the irradiated fuel in the (five-megawatt) reactor core in three to six months."
The ISIS report came a day after 38 North, the website of a different US research institute, said "suspicious activity" had been detected in Yongbyon, an indication that reprocessing is under way to produce plutonium.
38 North said there was evidence of "continued activity" in the first three months of this year at the five-megawatt reactor, with vehicles being moved around. "One possibility is continued maintenance. This activity appears to indicate that the reactor is being worked on, perhaps to bring it back into service."
North Korea's nuclear and long-range rocket tests this year triggered tough UN sanctions, but its leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to step up the development of atomic bombs, ordering nuclear weapons to be ready for use at any time.
Kim has also vowed to launch more rockets capable of carrying nuclear warheads, saying North Korea has acquired re-entry technology, despite doubts about its ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
