North Korea restarts plutonium production for nuclear bombs

North Korea appears to have reopened a plant to produce plutonium from spent fuel of a reactor central to its atomic weapons drive, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Monday, suggesting the country’s arms effort is widening.

During an interview with Reuters, an unidentified usa official who agreed only to speak only on condition of anonymity, said, “Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern”.

In February, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that the North had expanded its uranium-enrichment facility and restarted the 5-megawatt reactor, which had been operating long enough to yield spent fuel for plutonium “within a matter of weeks to months”. “So they are repeating that process”, the official said.

“That’s what they’re doing”, the USA official said on condition of anonymity, according to Reuters.

The report came a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency said there were indications that the plant has been reactivated for reprocessing spent fuel, bolstering the view that the reclusive state is steadily working on developing nuclear weapons in defiance of international sanctions.

North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear facilities, including the main reactor and the smaller plant at Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of an worldwide disarmament-for-aid deal that later collapsed.

Satellite imagery analysis of the site, published by 38 North on May 31, also showed similar evidence of probable plutonium production at the facility.

Despite possible reprocessing activities, North Korea does not appear to be producing new nuclear material at its 5 MWe reactor.

The nuclear plant, part of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, is located 60 miles north of the capital Pyongyang.

Experts say that if the facility operates in full capacity, it could produce enough plutonium to make several nuclear bombs. Observers in the global community have picked up signs that the plant, which previously produced fuel for nuclear weapons, is in operation again.

It had already declared itself “a responsible nuclear weapons state” and disavowed the use of nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is first infringed by others with nuclear arms.

“This theme is not new”, he said commenting on resumption of plutonium fuel production in Yongbyon in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In 2013, despite global sanctions banning such a practice, North Korea reportedly conducted its fourth nuclear test.