North Korea is likely to restart its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which is generally believed to have produced plutonium for its nuclear weapons in the past, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in an annual report released on Monday.
North Korea has accelerated its nuclear weapons development program after IAEA experts banned it and will soon resume its nuclear tests, most recently in 2017, MTI writes.
From December 2018 until now, there has been no indication of any operation of the reactor, but since then, among other things, the cooling water has been removed, which is a disturbing and clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
– He reads the report that refers to the 5-megawatt Jeongbyon reactor, which is the core of North Korea’s nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency also suspects that uranium is being mined again at the Pyongyang mine.
Highly enriched uranium is another important element in nuclear weapons in addition to plutonium.
The IAEA always publishes its annual report online without notice before consulting its member states.
North Korea has threatened in recent months to expand its nuclear program if the US does not abandon hostile policies against it, which clearly means US punitive measures and regular military exercises between South Korea and America.
Regarding the IAEA report, an unnamed US official told Yonhap News Agency on Sunday that dialogue and diplomacy with North Korea urgently needed to resume.
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Kim Jong-un does not like the fact that the United States and South Korea are conducting joint military exercises on the peninsula, although they would have returned to it. You probably won’t have to wait long for a response to a missile test.
