The International Atomic Energy Agency indicated this Friday that a new nuclear reactor in North Korea “appears to have become operational,” at a time when Pyongyang reiterates its threats to use nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies.
Located about 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang, the Yongbyon complex has already installed the country’s first nuclear reactor.
Since mid-October, a “strong flow of water” has been observed from the reactor cooling system (LWR), the director general of the agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said in a statement.
“The most recent observations show that the water discharged is hot, which is consistent with the start-up” of a reactor, he stressed.
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 separate during reprocessing, which is a cause for concern,” Grossi warned.
Since inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2009, the IAEA has been monitoring nuclear developments in the country through satellite images.
North Korea carried out its first nuclear test in 2006.
The sixth and most recent trial, in 2017, was also the most powerful.
At the beginning of the 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 atomic weapons.
North Korea will not hesitate to retaliate with nuclear weapons if “provoked” by nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un threatened this week.
On Monday, the regime carried out a test of the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the country’s arsenal: the Hwasong-18, which “seems capable” of reaching the entire territory of the United States.
Source: TSF
