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"The U.S. and South Korean authorities believe it could be a sign of reprocessing work to obtain weapons-grade plutonium," a South Korean government source said. Reprocessing involves shutting down a reactor for several weeks or longer, removing the spent fuel rods from the reactor, and transporting them to a radiochemical laboratory. And eventually reactors should be underwent a chemical process to extract weapons-grade plutonium.

The reactor at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex continues to show signs of operation, suggesting that the country may be resuming the production of weapons-grade plutonium, a U.S. institute monitoring the site said Monday. Steam vapor plumes were seen emanating from the 5 megawatt reactor facility and nearby river ice was melting, based on commercial satellite imagery from Feb. 25, the U.S.-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins University said on its 38 North website. (Photo supplied by Airbus Defense & Space/38 North) The findings could overshadow a recent diplomatic thaw between the two Koreas. "While vapor plumes have been noted a...

/begin my excerpt China conducted the exercise of mock occupation of Yongbyon nuclear facilities near the end of last year In preparation for a sudden crisis in North Korea, a large-scale exercise with 100,000 troops was conducted S. Korea/U.S. agencies such as NIS, JCS, CIA, etc. gathered to assess satellite photos U.S. to secure plutonium, S. Korea to secure highly-enriched uranium (HEU) in the event of crisis It is revealed that China conducted a large-scale military exercise at the end of last year for taking over the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon in the event of a sudden crisis in North...

Remember when we had an agreement based on trust and verification that would keep North Korea from developing or acquiring nuclear weapons? Good times, good times. With the ink drying on yet another “framework” deal with a rogue, dictatorial nation, North Korea announced today that they have restarted the proscribed Yongbyon reactor, and they are now ready to start launching nuclear weapons at the United States.Get used to this sort of thing: North Korea Tuesday announced that it had restarted its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and was ready to use nuclear weapons “any time” against the United States.The announcement came...

Experts warn of 'Chernobyl' risk at Yongbyon nuclear plant Sebastien Falletti, Seoul - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly 26 January 2014 North Korea's decision to restart its 5 megawatt electric (MWe) reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear scientific research complex threatens Northeast Asia with a disaster potentially worse than Chernobyl, according to nuclear experts. "This reactor comes from another world. The Yongbyon site has a concentration of so many nuclear facilities that if there was a fire in one building it could lead to a disaster worse than the Ukrainian one," said Seo Kyun Reul, a professor at the nucleonic department of...

North Korea May Be Making Fuel for a Nuclear Reactor and It's No Joke The Atlantic Wire By Danielle Wiener-Bronner The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University reported today that North Korea may be making good on promises to develop nuclear arms, by producing fuel rods necessary for a plutonium reactor and, therefore, to operate nuclear facilities. According to the institute, this marks a major development in the hermit nation's quest for nuclear weapons: Commercial satellite imagery has identified facilities at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center that may produce fuel for North Korea’s recently restarted 5 MW plutonium production...

Russian diplomat warns that North Korea faces 'man-made disaster' after satellite images show it has restarted ageing nuclear reactor The Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea was closed in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement Its five megawatt reactor can produce plutonium for weapons and bombs New satellite images have captured steam rising from the complex This suggests the nuclear reactor has been restarted, according to a U.S. research institute By Sophie Jane Evans PUBLISHED: 10:26 GMT, 12 September 2013 | UPDATED: 00:54 GMT, 13 September 2013 ....................................... But a senior Russian diplomat has claimed that the outdated...

As the civil war in Syria enters its third year, there is much discussion of the regimeÂ’s chemical weapons and whether SyriaÂ’s Bashar al-Assad will unleash them against Syrian rebels, or whether a power vacuum after AssadÂ’s fall might make those horrific tools available to the highest bidder. The conversation centers on SyriaÂ’s chemical weaponry, not on something vastly more serious: its nuclear weaponry. It well might have. This is the inside story of why it does not. Relations between the United States and Israel had grown rocky after IsraelÂ’s incursion into Lebanon in 2006, for Secretary of State Condoleezza...

N.Korea's Nuclear Facilities 'a Disaster in the Making' North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is using nuclear weapons development to maintain his firm grip on power, but a compilation of North Korean state media reports the Unification Ministry has gathered since June 2000, the reclusive leader has never visited the main Yongbyon nuclear complex. Experts say this is unusual given that Kim has undertaken more than 100 of his so-called on-the-spot guidance tours this year alone, to anything from shoe factories to military units. One theory is that the site is simply too dangerous. Yongbyon "is such a 'sensitive' location that...

North Korea is trying to develop small nuclear weapons that can be delivered by missiles or aircraft, South Korea's defence minister said Tuesday. Kim Tae-Young told lawmakers the North is "constantly seeking to make its nuclear weapons smaller" for possible future delivery by ballistic missiles or bombers. Kim said the North is also believed to have 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of bomb-making plutonium, slightly less than previous estimates by the United States. He said it is "quite possible" that Pyongyang is also building nuclear weapons through uranium enrichment in addition to its plutonium operation. "The more you test the weapons,...

In a stunning final round performance, zero outdistanced dear leader, kim jong il, to win the yongbyon masters at the beautiful championship course surrounding the partially shuttered plutonium reprocessing facility. After having his opening drive shot down, and losing 2 balls in the sludge pond, zero got himself together and posted an incredible 29 under par 43 to win by 3 shots over dear leader. Such mastery!, such control!, gushed both Katie Couric and Brian Williams in describing what they had just witnessed.

Excerpt- SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday said it has halted disablement of its nuclear power plants as Washington failed to remove it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. The communist nation's Foreign Ministry said measures to halt the process were taken as of Aug. 14. ~ snip ~

NORTH KOREA SAYS IT HAS SHUT DOWN YONGBYON NUCLEAR REACTOR-US STATE DEPARTMENT

BEIJING. June 18 (Interfax) - North Korea will be able to freeze and seal the Yongbyon nuclear rector in the second half of July 2007, a North Korean diplomatic source told Interfax on Monday. "In the estimate of our experts, the reactor's technical freezing will take about a month, so we hope to seal it, as required by the agreements reached at the six-party talks, in the second half of July 2007," the source said.

Hwang: “Nuclear Facility in Yongbyon Has Been Unnecessary for 10 Years” FEBRUARY 21, 2007 07:10 Hwang Jang-yop, the former secretary of the North Korean Workers Party in charge of international affairs, disclosed in a Freedom North Korea Broadcast on February 19 that the nuclear facility in Yongbyon, which North Korea promised to shut down in exchange for one million tons of oil, was in fact already deemed unnecessary 10 years ago. The former secretary Hwang said, “In fact, I heard the plutonium (extracted) with a graphite reactor is unusable directly from the secretary of munitions manufacture. Before that, they had...

North Korea has reportedly agreed to halt nuclear activities including operations at a reactor in Yongbyon, and allow on-site monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency as the first steps to abandoning its nuclear program. The agreement came during a meeting of the chief nuclear negotiators of the U.S. and North Korea that ended Friday in Berlin, sources said. According to diplomatic sources in Seoul and Beijing, North Korea’s top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan told his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill that North Korea will yield in return for economic and energy aid from the U.S. and assurances that the...

BEIJING – North Korea is planning to unload fuel rods at its Yongbyon reactor within the next three months in what would be a significant boost to its nuclear weapons capability, an American scholar said Saturday. During a meeting this past week in Pyongyang, Selig Harrison said that North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan told him that the communist nation would unload the rods “beginning this fall, and no later than the end of the year.” Removing the fuel rods is “a significant new development because it underlines that North Korea is enhancing its weapons capability,” Harrison, director...

The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday. ``According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska,¡¯¡¯ former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report. ``Washington, as well as Tokyo, has so far underrated Pyongyang¡¯s missile capabilities.¡¯¡¯

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Yonhap) -- Satellite images indicate activity at a North Korean nuclear reactor suspected of producing weapons-grade material, according to an online security organization on Saturday. Four satellite photos of the five-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon, North Korea, taken on Jan. 5 this year show vehicles and containers near the main building that were absent in images taken on March 5, 2003. The photos appear on the web site of Global Security (GlobalSecurity.Org), an Internet organization providing background information on defense, space and intelligence since it was launched in 2000. The Yongbyon reactor, claimed by North Koreans to...

TOKYO, Aug. 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea began operating its nuclear reactor just before the fourth round of six-party talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons ambitions started in late July, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday. In a dispatch from Washington, Asahi said North Korea resumed operations at its 5,000-kilowatt nuclear plant in Yongbyon in July, merely months after it announced that activities at the plant had been suspended in order to remove spent fuel rods out of it for reprocessing. Asahi quoted U.S. officials as saying that intelligence satellites had detected water vapor being released from the plant's...