Perilous Times
Satellite images reveal new N.Korea nuke processing building
Published November 18, 2010
| Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea – New satellite images show construction under way
at North Korea's main atomic complex, apparent proof that Pyongyang is
making good on its pledge to build a nuclear power reactor, according
to a private American security institute.
North Korea vowed in March to build a light-water reactor using its own
nuclear fuel, and two American experts who recently visited the North
have reportedly said that construction has begun.
Light-water reactors are ostensibly for civilian energy purposes, but
the power plant would give the North a reason to enrich uranium. At low
levels, uranium can be used in power reactors, but at higher levels it
can be used in nuclear bombs. While light-water reactors are considered
less prone to misuse than heavy-water reactors, once the process of
uranium enrichment is mastered, it is relatively easy to enrich further
to weapons-grade levels.
North Korea is pursuing an arsenal of atomic weapons, so all its
nuclear projects are of intense interest to its neighbors and to the
United States. It carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing
international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security
on Thursday released commercial satellite images from Nov. 4 that show
a rectangular structure being built, with at least two cranes visible
at the complex. It estimated North Korea was constructing a 25 to 30
megawatt light-water reactor.
The institute based its estimate on information from the recent trip to
Yongbyon by Siegfried Hecker, former director of the U.S. Los Alamos
Nuclear Laboratory, and Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. envoy for
negotiations with North Korea.
It said Hecker told the institute "that the new construction seen in
the satellite imagery is indeed the construction of the experimental
light-water reactor."
The institute said the amount of low-enriched uranium needed for a 25
to 30 megawatt reactor could vary "depending on the design of the
reactor and whether it will be optimized for electricity production or
weapon-grade plutonium production."
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said the
construction has yet to be verified and that Seoul was monitoring
developments at the site and talking with other countries. Kim said any
move to build a light-water reactor would violate U.N. resolutions on
North Korea aimed at reining in its nuclear programs.
The new satellite imagery comes as North Korea presses for the
resumption of international nuclear disarmament talks it quit last
year. South Korea and the United States have said North Korea must show
its sincerity before those talks can continue.
Washington promised the energy-starved North two light-water reactors
under a 1994 deal meant to freeze North Korea's plutonium program. The
deal, however, collapsed in 2002 when the United States accused North
Korea of running a secret uranium enrichment program — a process that
would give it a second way to build nuclear bombs in addition to the
plutonium program.
After seven years of adamant denials, North Korea said last year that
it was in the final stages of uranium enrichment.
The Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan, reported
Thursday that Pyongyang was building a light-water reactor as part of
its plan to revive its economy ahead of 2012, the 100th anniversary of
the birth of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, father of current
leader Kim Jong Il.