UN Watchdog Warns North Korea May Have Resumed Nuclear Activities
“the new indications of the operation of the 5-megawatt reactor and the radiochemical laboratory are deeply troubling”
IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is now warning that North Korea may have restarted a nuclear reactor, signaling that the communist nation might once again pursue the creation of nuclear weapons.
North Korea’s timing on this is perfect because there’s not enough chaos in the world right now.
Mychael Schnell reports at The Hill:
Watchdog sees signs North Korea has restarted nuclear reactor
An international watchdog says there are signs indicating North Korea has restarted a nuclear reactor that is used to produce fuel for weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote in its annual report, dated Friday, that there have been “indications” at the Yongbyon Experimental Nuclear Power Plant in North Korea that are “consistent with the operation of the reactor,” including the discharge of cooling water.
Those indications have been seen since early July, according to the report. The agency said it did not observe any indications that the reactor was operating from early December 2018 to the beginning of last month.
Hyung Jin-Kim of the Associated Press has more:
The report said there were indications of the operation of Yongbyon’s radiochemical laboratory from mid-February to early July this year. It said this period of operation is consistent with previous reprocessing campaigns announced by North Korea of irradiated fuel discharged from the reactor. The laboratory is a facility where plutonium is extracted by reprocessing spent fuel rods removed from reactors.
“(North Korea’s) nuclear activities continue to be a cause for serious concern. Furthermore, the new indications of the operation of the 5-megawatt reactor and the radiochemical laboratory are deeply troubling,” the IAEA said.
The IAEA has not had access to Yongbyon or other locations in North Korea since the country kicked out IAEA inspectors in 2009. The agency said it uses satellite imagery and open source information to monitor developments in North Korea’s nuclear program.
The Yongbyon complex also produces highly enriched uranium, the other key nuclear fuel. The IAEA report said “there were indications, for a period of time, that the reported centrifuge enrichment facility was not in operation” though regular vehicular movements were observed.
Here’s a concise video report from CBS News:
After Joe Biden’s performance over the last two weeks, Americans may be a bit more concerned about this development than usual.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Well, why wouldn’t it? What a difference a weak American President makes.
Kamala will fix it.
I’m sure Joe will jump right on this problem….. when he wakes up.
I am sure GEN Miley will give the president lots of useful options… on how to understand his white rage and purge the ranks of Republicans.
Looks like the Obama/Biden “Peace through Weakness” policies are working. I’m so glad the adults are back in charge. /s
Not a lot of white supremacists in North Korea. So who cares.
. . > Biden and the Progressive Left only see Trump and his supporters as the enemy.
“North Korea’s timing on this is perfect because there’s not enough chaos in the world right now.”
Nobody’s seen Batman in Gotham City for seven months, what did you think the supercriminals would do about that?
IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is now warning that North Korea may have restarted a nuclear reactor, signaling that the communist nation might once again pursue the creation of nuclear weapons.
Well you know that would all be Trump’s fault because he once met and talked to Kim Jong-un back in 2019 about Kim’s nuclear ambitions, right?
Why not? He may take a hard look at an invasion of the south. It paid off for the Taliban. There could be a big windfall gain of tanks and aircraft.
He may take a hard look at an invasion of the south.
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the rok marines might have something to say about that–as a fighting force, they are among the toughest on this planet–can’t see a conventional invasion scenario being successful on the korean pennisula
Nuclear reactors and reprocessing facilities do not have simple on/off switches. It takes time and preparations to bring them from shutdown back to operation. Now you have a built in delay while the political leadership [based on whatever intel they get be it accurate or not] makes a decision on whether to risk it or not [and that has its own time factor]; but it sure seems that as soon as the North Koreans were sure that President* Biden was in fact going to be in office they decided to start the process of cranking it up. We have not seen anything yet.
Based on my analysis [and YMMV] I kinda think that if the Japanese, ROK’s, and Taiwan do not have deliverable nukes [and I think they actually do] they will have them really, really soon.
Subotai Bahadur
Well hell, let’s just add this to Chairman Xiden’s list of extraordinary accomplishments! Now if he could get only China to occupy Taiwan…..
So glad the adults are now in charge /sarc. So far, we have the Taliban on steroids with our military equipment; ISIS and Al-Queda reconstituting themselves; China looking at Taiwan; North Korea starting its nuclear program back up; and God knows what Iran is doing or when they’ll start arming the Palestinians with our equipment bought from the Taliban to go after Israel. And Biden hasn’t even been in office for a whole year.