North Korea appears to be moving ahead with the building of a light-water reactor that could be used to support its nuclear weapons program, according to satellite images released Wednesday.
North Korea
appears to be moving ahead with the building of a light-water reactor that
could be used to support its nuclear weapons program, according to satellite
images released Wednesday.
The signs of progress come amid fears that the secretive communist state is
planning a new nuclear test, although experts said that the new reactor is
likely still years away from being operational.
Commercial satellite images, taken on April 30 and analyzed by Johns Hopkins
University's U.S.-Korea Institute, showed advances at the site of a new reactor
at the Yongbyon complex with added concrete, steel and roof work.
"It appears that the North may now be nearing completion of the reactor
containment building," said a blog entry on the institute's website,
38north.org.
The construction of the reactor, along with a uranium enrichment plant,
"is an important indication of the North's intention to move forward with
the expansion of its nuclear weapons stockpile in the future," it said.
But it said the facility was unlikely to be operational before 2014 or 2015 as
North
Korea
would still need to install
heavy equipment including a turbine generator.
North Korea
first
disclosed construction on a new reactor in 2010 to visiting
U.S.
scientists and also showed them a uranium enrichment plant that was said to produce
low-enriched fuel for the new facility.
While both were ostensibly for civilian power, the enrichment plant could be
converted to produce highly enriched uranium for bombs. Scientists say that the
light water reactor could also be run to produce plutonium.
North Korea
,
whose nuclear program is based on plutonium, has tested two nuclear bombs and
has hinted that it may conduct a third explosion.
Kim Jong Eun's regime said it would suspend nuclear and missile tests along
with uranium enrichment under a February 29 deal with the
United
States
.
But the agreement quickly collapsed after North Korea launched a rocket on
April 13 in what U,S, officials believe was a disguised, albeit unsuccessful,
missile test.
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