North Korean nuclear reactor work ‘could end in catastrophe’

Evidence that North Korea is restarting a reactor capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons sparked international anger yesterday, amid warnings that putting it back into operation could end in disaster.

Analysis of satellite images has shown white smoke emerging from the five-megawatt graphite-moderated reactor in recent weeks, according to the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

The steam indicates that the electrical system in the steam turbine building is being prepared to come online, a precursor to the plant going back into full operation.

“If it turns out that these reports are true, this would be a very serious matter,” said Glyn Davies, the US envoy for North Korea policy.

He said the move would be “a misstep on the part of North Korea because of course it would violate seriously the United Nations Security Council resolutions. It flies in the face of North Korea’s own commitments.”

If the plant does return to operational status, it would enable North Korea to produce an extra 13.2lbs of plutonium a year for its nuclear weapons programme, experts said.

There are also safety concerns about the plant, which uses outdated technology and is not subject to monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“It is obvious that some work is being conducted, and for a long time at that,” a Russian diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency. “According to some signs, steps were indeed taken to relaunch it.”

He warned: “The reactor is in a nightmarish state, it is a design dating back to the 1950s. For the Korean Peninsula, this could entail terrible consequences, if not a man-made catastrophe.”

The reports caused North Korea’s only major ally China to re-iterate its call for the “de-nuclearisation” of the peninsula.

“To achieve denuclearization and to maintain peace and stability is what China has been advocating,” said Hong Lei, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman.

Yukiya Amano, director general of the IAEA, said that his organisation does not have a “clear understanding” of the situation at Yongbyon as North Korea has not permitted inspectors to visit the site.

Pyongyang threatened to restart the reactor in April, as regional tensions escalated after the North fired a long-range missile, carried out its third underground nuclear test and threatened the United States. It has since toned down its inflammatory rhetoric.

Analysts believe that North Korea has between four and 10 nuclear devices, built with plutonium from Yongbyon before it was briefly shutdown in 2007 as part of an international agreement to disable the facilities in return for aid to the North.

Analysts have also warned that President Barack Obama’s policy of patience towards North Korea on its nuclear weapons is not paying off.

“So far, strategic patience has not succeeded in bringing about change in North Korea,” the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual review of world affairs.

“Pyongyang is instead moving further away from the denuclearisation pledge and closer to projecting nuclear power over long ranges,” it said.

Intelligence sources in the United States and South Korea recently warned that Pyongyang’s scientists have made great strides in efforts to miniaturise nuclear warheads to the point they can be attached to a missile. Instead of being some years off, Washington now believes that North Korea’s scientists may be as little as 12 months away from perfecting the technology.

That emphasis on the drive to build nuclear weapons over the safety of the plant means that Yongbyon is a danger to the region, believes Aidan Foster-Carter, an expert on Korean affairs at Leeds University.

“This is a very poor country with a lot of facilities that are decrepit because they have had no money spent on them,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “This makes it all the more urgent to find a way out of the political deadlock.”

If the plant does return to operational status, it would enable North Korea to produce an extra 13.2lbs of plutonium a year for its nuclear weapons programme, experts said.

But there are additional concerns about the plant, which uses outdated technology and is not subject to monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“It is obvious that some work is being conducted, and for a long time at that,” a Russian diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency. “According to some signs, steps were indeed taken to relaunch it.

“The reactor is in a nightmarish state, it is a design dating back to the 1950s. For the Korean Peninsula, this could entail terrible consequences, if not a man-made catastrophe.”

Yukiya Amano, director general of the IAEA, said on Thursday that his organisation does not have a “clear understanding” of the situation at Yongbyon as North Korea has not permitted inspectors to visit the site.

Pyongyang threatened to restart the reactor in April, as regional tensions escalated after the North fired a long-range missile and then carried out its third underground nuclear test.

Analysts believe that North Korea has between four and 10 nuclear weapons, built with plutonium from Yongbyon before it was briefly shutdown in 2007 as part of an international agreement to disable the facilities in return for aid to the North.

Analysts have also warned that President Barack Obama’s policy of patience towards North Korea on its nuclear weapons is not paying off.

“So far, strategic patience has not succeeded in bringing about change in North Korea,” the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in its annual review of world affairs.

“Pyongyang is instead moving further away from the denuclearisation pledge and closer to projecting nuclear power over long ranges,” it said.

Intelligence sources in the United States and South Korea recently warned that Pyongyang’s scientists have made great strides in efforts to miniaturise nuclear warheads to the point they can be attached to a missile. Instead of being some years off, Washington now believes that North Korea’s scientists may be as little as 12 months away from perfecting the technology.

That emphasis on the drive to build nuclear weapons over the safety of the plant means that Yongbyon is a danger to the region, believes Aidan Foster-Carter, an expert on Korean affairs at Leeds University.

“This is a very poor country with a lot of facilities that are decrepit because they have had no money spent on them,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “This makes it all the more urgent to find a way out of the political deadlock.”