North Korea has halted the nuclear reactor at its important atomic advanced, almost certainly to reprocess spent gasoline rods and extract weapons-grade plutonium, South Korean media reported Thursday.
The operation of the 5 megawatt nuclear reactor on the Yongbyon nuclear advanced has been suspended since late September, in response to intelligence evaluation by U.S. and South Korean authorities, the report stated.
“South Korea and the U.S. believe this could be a sign of reprocessing work being done to obtain weapons-grade plutonium,” the Donga Ilbo newspaper quoted a authorities supply as saying.
Reprocessing of spent gasoline rods faraway from a nuclear reactor is a step taken earlier than plutonium is extracted. The Yongbyon nuclear advanced is the North’s important supply of plutonium that it doubtless has used to construct nuclear weapons.
North Korea has additionally operated uranium enrichment amenities, which is a separate supply of fabric that could possibly be used for nuclear weapons.
“The possibility of a nuclear test by North Korea is not ruled out,” Donga Ilbo quoted a senior authorities official as saying, with out elaborating on what evaluation pointed to the evaluation the transfer could also be associated to a nuclear take a look at.
South Korea Defense Ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-gyu declined to touch upon the main points of the report however stated U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities are carefully monitoring associated developments.
North Korea has beforehand halted the operation of the reactor earlier than restarting it and public affirmation of the aim of such a transfer, whether or not it’s for upkeep or for gasoline extraction, is normally unavailable.
Pyongyang claims itself a nuclear state however has stored what number of nuclear weapons it could have constructed or deployed a secret. Independent estimates of the North’s plutonium vary as excessive as 70 kilograms, which could possibly be sufficient to construct 20 or extra weapons.
U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the Yongbyon advanced in 2010, stated regardless of the time North Korea has spent on the venture, its capability for producing plutonium and in addition the inventory of fissile materials itself are nonetheless restricted.
Russia President Vladimir Putin, who just lately hosted North Korean chief Kim Jong Un for a summit and pledged nearer army cooperation with Pyongyang, might provide the North a lot wanted assist with all features of its nuclear programme, Hecker stated.
“For the shorter term, what concerns me most is Russia clandestinely supplying plutonium directly,” Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, stated in feedback printed on the 38 North venture.
North Korea has performed six underground nuclear checks and there have been issues since final yr that it could be about to conduct one other take a look at as a part of efforts to develop miniaturized nuclear warheads.
North Korea’s parliament adopted a constitutional modification final week on its coverage of nuclear pressure. Kim has additionally ordered the manufacturing of nuclear arms to extend “exponentially” and to diversify its nuclear capabilities.
Source: www.dailysabah.com