SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s main nuclear facility is in full swing, a new report said on Friday, the latest evidence to highlight the challenges facing whoever wins next week’s presidential election in South Korea.
With denuclearisation talks stalled, North Korea conducted a record number of missile launches in January. It appears to be preparing to launch a spy satellite in the near future, and has suggested it could resume testing of nuclear weapons or its longest range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for the first time since 2017.
International monitors say that behind the scenes, North Korea also appears to be using reactors at its Yongbyon complex to produce fuel for potential nuclear weapons and an expansion of its nuclear production facilities.
“The activities observed in Yongbyon indicate ongoing fissile material production as well as the groundwork for further expansion,” the U.S.-based 38 North project said in a report, citing commercial satellite imagery of the site.
North Korea may now be close to inaugurating an Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR), though additional work would need to be done to expand capacity of a radiochemical laboratory, which reprocesses spent fuel for plutonium extraction, the report said.
“North Korea’s plutonium production capacity could increase substantially,” it concluded.
The report comes less than a week before South Korea’s March 9 election to choose a new president to replace outgoing incumbent Moon Jae-in.
Source: The Star
