The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that a new nuclear reactor in North Korea “appears to have come online,” as Pyongyang repeats threats to use nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies.
The Yongbyon complex, about 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang, has already installed the country’s first nuclear reactor.
Since mid-October, a “strong flow of water” has been observed coming from the reactor cooling system (LWR), the agency’s director general (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said in a statement.
“The latest observations show that the discharged water is hot, which is consistent with the commissioning of a reactor,” he pointed out.
However, the verification process takes time and without access to the facility, the IAEA cannot accurately confirm its operational status.
“Like any other nuclear reactor, an LWR can produce plutonium from spent fuel, which can be separated during reprocessing, which is a cause for concern,” Grossi warned.
Director General of the IAEA @rafaelmgrossi statement on recent developments in the DPRK nuclear program.https://t.co/mS9i5FPUVV pic.twitter.com/jxVAEQlTwk
– IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) December 21, 2023
Since the inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2009, the IAEA has been monitoring nuclear developments in the country through satellite images.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.
The sixth and most recent nuclear test, in 2017, was also the most powerful.
Early this year, the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, called for an expansion of the production of “military nuclear material” to “exponentially” increase the production of nuclear weapons.
North Korea will not hesitate to retaliate with nuclear weapons if it is “provoked” by nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un threatened this week.
On Monday, the regime conducted a test of the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the country’s arsenal: the Hwasong-18, which “appears capable” of reaching all of the United States’ territory.
Source: DN
