US satellite images capture new buildings at North Korea nuclear plant

The discovery of the new buildings has sparked concern that they may be part of a drive by Pyongyang to fabricate fuel for nuclear reactors or to enrich uranium.

Renovation of some of the buildings at the sprawling plant have also been identified in new satellite images released by the Institute for Science and International Security.

The organisation, based in Washington, DC, identifiec a number of entirely new buildings, including some that were apparently only completed this spring.

The release of the report coincides with a report to parliament by South Korea’s defence minister, Kim Kwan-Jin, that the North may have developed a nuclear warhead small enough to be loaded onto a ballistic missile and warning that the risk of another “surprise provocation” from Pyongyang is now rising.

The South has claimed that its assessment of the nuclear capabilities of its belligerent neighbour is not based on specific intelligence, but its analysts will have been carefully watching developments at Yongbyon.

Construction of the new facilities apparently started after Pyongyang expelled teams from the International Atomic Energy Agency in April 2009 that had been charged with disabling three plutonium production facilities at the site.

North Korea later confirmed that it had begun construction of a gas centrifuge plant at the fuel fabrication facility, an enlarged site around 2 miles south of the 5-megawatt experimental reactor that first reached criticality as far back as August 1985.

Reprocessed plutonium from the reactor is believed to have been used in nuclear tests North Korea carried out in 2006 and 2009.

ISIS analysts have also confirmed that extensive work has been carried out at an earlier fuel fabrication plant, which has been enlarged and given a new roof.

The location of additional new buildings close to the gas centrifuge facility also indicate they are being used for the fabrication of reactor fuel, for enriching uranium or its conversion into uranium hexaflouride, a compound used in the enrichment process to produce fuel for nuclear weapons.
The Telegraph

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