NoKo restarts nuke reactor: watchdog

North Korea appears to have restarted a nuclear reactor that is widely believed to have produced plutonium for weapons, the UN atomic watchdog said in an annual report.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has had no access to North Korea since Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2009. The country then pressed ahead with its nuclear-weapons program and resumed nuclear testing. Its last test was in 2017. The IAEA now mostly uses satellite imagery to monitor North Korea.

“There were no indications of reactor operation from early December 2018 to the beginning of July 2021,” the IAEA report said of the 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon, a nuclear complex at the heart of North Korea’s nuclear program. “However, since early July 2021, there have been indications, including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the reactor.”

The IAEA issues the report before a meeting of its member states, posting it online with no announcement. The report was dated Friday.

The IAEA said in June that there were indications at Yongbyon of possible reprocessing work to separate plutonium from spent reactor fuel that could be used in nuclear weapons.

Friday’s report said the duration of that apparent work, five months, from mid-February to early July, suggested a full batch of spent fuel was handled, in contrast to the shorter time needed for waste treatment or maintenance.

There were indications “for a period of time” that what is suspected to be a uranium-enrichment plant at Yongbyon was not in operation, the report said. There were also indications of mining and concentration activities at a uranium mine and plant at Pyongsan, it added.