International

‘N’Korea defiant of sanction by restarting plutonium production’

Published

8 years ago

June 8, 2016

We won't release your citizens until Bae stops ‘blabbing’ –N’Korea tells America

A senior U.S State Department official has informed that defiant North Korea has started the production of plutonium fuel in its continued plan to pursue it’s nuclear weapons programme.

The action which is in defiance of international sanctions is coming a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said it had “indications” that Pyongyang has reactivated a plant to recover plutonium from spent reactor fuel at Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex.

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The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Washington is worried by the new plutonium reprocessing effort, but he offered no explicit word on any U.S. response.

“Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern,” the official told Reuters.

“They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that’s where they’ve obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process,” the official said. “That’s what they’re doing.” The senior U.S State Department official said.

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