north korea 'expands plutonium production', says us - bbc news

8/19/2019 North Korea 'Expands Plutonium Production', Says US - BBC News

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North Korea 'expands plutonium production', says US

9 February 2016 Asia

North Korea could soon have enough plutonium for nuclear weapons after restarting oneof its reactors, US intelligence chief James Clapper says.

He also said Pyongyang had taken steps towards making an intercontinental ballistic

missile system.

It comes days after the North launched a long-range rocket, which critics say is a test of banned

missile technology.

Last September Pyongyang said its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon had resumed normal

operations.

The reactor there has been the source of plutonium for its nuclear weapons programme. The

North carried out its fourth nuclear test in January.

North Korea's nuclear tests

How advanced is North Korea's nuclear programme?

"We assess that North Korea has followed through on its announcement by expanding its

Yongbyon enrichment facility and restarting the plutonium production reactor," Mr Clapper wrote

in his annual assessment of threats facing the US.

"We further assess that North Korea has been operating the reactor long enough so that it could

begin to recover plutonium from the reactor's spent fuel within a matter of weeks to months."

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2/15

Mr Clapper also told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pyongyang was committed to

developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile "capable of posing a direct threat to the United

States".

He said it had publicly displayed a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile system and had taken

"initial steps toward fielding this system, although the system has not been flight-tested".

Science Photo Library

Reuters


3/15

Experts have said that, when fully operational, the Yongbyon reactor could make one nuclear

bomb's worth of plutonium per year. About 4kg of plutonium is needed in order to make a

bomb that would explode with a force of 20 kilotons.

Pyongyang has pledged several times to stop operations at Yongbyon and even destroyed the

cooling tower in 2008 as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal.

However, in March 2013, following a row with the US and after new UN sanctions over a third

nuclear test, it vowed to restart all facilities at Yongbyon.

Six-nation talks involving South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia aimed at ending the

North's nuclear programme have been stalled since 2009.

Pyongyang says it has made a device small enough to fit a nuclear warhead on to a missile,

which it could launch at its enemies. However, US officials have cast doubt on the claim.

Yongbyon nuclear complex

North Korea's main nuclear facility, believed to have manufactured material for previousnuclear tests

Reactor shut down in July 2007 as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal

International inspectors banned in April 2009 when North Korea pulled out of disarmament

talks

A uranium enrichment facility was revealed in 2010. An American nuclear scientist said

centrifuges appeared to be primarily for civilian nuclear power, but could be converted to

produce highly enriched uranium bomb fuel

Reuters

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/05/nuclear_fuel/html/plutoniumbomb.stm


4/15

In 2013, North Korea said it would restart the nuclear reactor, the same year it conducted a

nuclear test. It is believed to have shut it down for a period in 2014.

Experts believe that reactor could make one bomb's worth of plutonium per year

Nuclear test based on uranium device would be harder to monitor than plutonium

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