Posted on 03/02/2021 4:53:12 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo
SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Signs of activity have recently been detected at some North Korean nuclear facilities, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief has said, expressing serious concern at the reclusive regime's continued activities.
Mr Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the board of governors that there was evidence that the regime has continued construction at an experimental light-water reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, including testing of the infrastructure for cooling water in late 2020.
He added that while there were no signs of producing enriched uranium at the reported centrifuge enrichment facility at Yongbyon, there are ongoing indications of activity at another facility in Kangson, just outside of Pyongyang.
The Kangson site has long been suspected as the regime's clandestine facility for uranium enrichment, or fuel for nuclear bombs. But 38 North, a US-based North Korean monitoring website, reported in December that Kangson may not be a uranium enrichment plant, but is dedicated to producing related components for enriching uranium.
Mr Grossi said there were no signs of operations at the Yongbyon complex's 5-megawatt nuclear reactor - the country's main source of weapons-grade plutonium - and of enriched uranium production at the reported centrifuge enrichment facility there. But there were indications of operating the stream plant that serves the radiochemical laboratory.
Mr Grossi stressed that the North's nuclear activities remain a cause for serious concern.
"The continuation of the DPRK's nuclear programme is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolution and is deeply regrettable," he said on Monday (March 1), using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name.
"I call upon the DPRK to comply fully with its obligations under Security Council resolutions, to cooperate promptly with the Agency in the full and effective implementation of its NPT Safeguards Agreement and to resolve all outstanding issues," he said, referring to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Pyongyang expelled IAEA inspectors in 2009, and since then the agency has monitored the country's nuclear programme through open-source information and satellite imagery. North Korea's last and largest nuclear test was in 2017, when it claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.
Meanwhile, the newly minted US Ambassador to the UN said on Monday that North Korea continues to pose a serious threat to peace and security for the world, and that the US will keep pressing the regime for denuclearisation.
"We do believe that North Korea constitutes a serious threat to our peace and security and to the globe. And so we have a vital interest in trying to deter North Korea towards that goal, and also in defending against its provocations or use of force," Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during her first press conference.
"President Biden has made clear that we're going to engage in a principled diplomacy, together with our allies and partners, and we will keep pressing toward a denuclearised North Korea."
I would be fine with giving him the precise coordinates to the Capitol building, as long as he only launched during a joint session of Congress.
So, are you in possession of information from other sources that contradicts the work being done on monitoring NK activity? Surely you don’t trust what they say, now do you?
The UN nuclear watchdog is just another public relations / bureaucratic careerist org. Of *course* the Norks are cheating.
Apropos of nothing, SL-9 comet fragments inmpacted Jupiter in 1994.
That was an amazing event. I was a young boy and the neighbors invited everyone to look at the impact and its “spots” through their very nice scope. I remember there was some debate among the adults as to whether we’d even be able to see anything. Well, we sure did!
Yeah, some people had their heads up their keisters regarding what the outcome would be.
https://www.nature.com/articles/370094a0
Very interesting. Thanks.
Uh; those look like Quonset huts to me.
BTW; North is DOWN in this picture
Y2K?
Hey, wny not 2K? ;^)
Yeah, no kidding
He’s felt that way for three fricking years now (but not through must of 2018, I’ll grant) and he will also likely feel the same sense of security under continued appeasement by Biden. Well, we will have to see.
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