South Korea defence ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-gyu declined to comment on the details of the report but said US and South Korean intelligence authorities are closely monitoring related developments.
North Korea has previously halted the operation of the reactor before restarting it and public confirmation of the purpose of such a move, whether it is for maintenance or for fuel extraction, is usually unavailable.
North Korea claims itself a nuclear state but has kept how many nuclear weapons it may have built or deployed a secret. Independent estimates of the North’s plutonium range as high as 70kg, which could be enough to build 20 or more weapons.
US nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the Yongbyon complex in 2010, said despite the time North Korea has spent on the project, its capacity for producing plutonium and also the stock of fissile material itself are still limited.
Russia President Vladimir Putin, who recently hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a summit and pledged closer military cooperation with Pyongyang, could offer the North much-needed help with all aspects of its nuclear programme, Hecker said.
“For the shorter term, what concerns me most is Russia clandestinely supplying plutonium directly,” Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in comments published on the 38 North project.
North Korea has conducted six underground nuclear tests and there have been concerns since last year that it may be about to conduct another test as part of a programme to develop miniaturised nuclear warheads.
North Korea’s parliament adopted a constitutional amendment last week on its policy of nuclear force. Kim has also ordered the production of nuclear arms to increase “exponentially” and to diversify its nuclear capabilities.
Source: CNA
