UN agency: NKorea restarts reactor at nuclear complex
SEOUL — North Korea appears to have restarted a reactor in its main nuclear complex, the U.N.s’ nuclear watchdog said in a report, an indication that the North has been ramping up its nuclear weapons program while talks with the United States remain stalled.
The report also suggested that North Korea had renewed efforts to extract plutonium from spent fuel removed earlier at the sprawling complex, in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, the capital.
Nuclear disarmament talks between Washington and Pyongyang fizzled after the second summit meeting between the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and former President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. The Biden administration has offered to renew talks “anywhere, anytime without preconditions,” but North Korea has not shown interest, and in recent weeks the United States has been focused on the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Historically, the North has increased activities at Yongbyon when it has sought to raise tensions and increase its diplomatic leverage.
“There were no indications of reactor operation from early December 2018 to the beginning of July 2021,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in its annual report, dated Friday. “However, since early July 2021, there have been indications, including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the reactor.”
The watchdog also reported that North Korea may have used a laboratory at Yongbyon for five months, from mid-February to early July, to extract plutonium from nuclear waste removed from the reactor.
The activities were consistent with the North’s previous campaigns to produce plutonium from the waste, it said, calling the activities “deeply troubling.”
The Yongbyon reactor has been the only source of plutonium-fuel nuclear warheads for North Korea, although the country is believed to produce an alternative bomb fuel — highly enriched uranium — through centrifuge plants as well.
The North’s production of fissile materials violates multiple resolutions from the U.N. Security Council, which has sought to stop the country from developing nuclear warheads, with little success. Earlier this year, the North also restarted tests of shortrange ballistic missiles, another violation of U.N. resolutions.
When Kim met with Trump in Hanoi in February 2019, he insisted on moving in phases toward denuclearization. But Trump rejected the offer, demanding a much quicker and broader elimination of North Korea’s weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has had no access to North Korea since Pyongyang expelled its inspectors in 2009 and resumed nuclear testing.
North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test in 2017.
North Korea has shut down and reopened Yongbyon, the birthplace of its nuclear weapons program, at various times depending on its progress with Washington.