Non-Subscriber Extract
Nuclear fallout - North Korea returns to proliferation programme
By Naomi Greene
25 June 2009
A fluctuating store of material (inset, right) was detected at the facility as well as one flatbed cargo truck (inset, left) in this 17 April 2009 GeoEye-1 satellite image of the radiochemical research/reprocessing centre at Yongbyon, North Korea. (GeoEye)
A series of North Korean actions between April and June have amounted to a complete breakdown in non-proliferation efforts on the peninsula.
Pyongyang's 5 April rocket launch and 14 April withdrawal from six-party denuclearisation talks (between China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States), were followed by an announcement that it had restarted its nuclear programme. If this were not demonstration enough of North Korea's determination to continue to pursue its nuclear programme, the country conducted its second nuclear test on 25 May and on 13 June announced it would pursue a uranium enrichment programme.
While the possibility of a bilateral dialogue between the US and North Korea that may eventually break the diplomatic deadlock remains, there has yet to be any movement in that direction. In the meantime, North Korea claims to have reprocessed one third of the 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods in its 5 MW reactor at Yongbyon, which could yield sufficient plutonium for additional nuclear weapons. While North Korea has agreed to disable its ageing nuclear complex in the past, it has privately indicated in recent months that it is not prepared to concede reprocessed plutonium.