'Indications' N Korea has reactivated plutonium plant: IAEA

June 06, 2016 21:54

North Korea may have reactivated a plant for reprocessing plutonium for use in nuclear weapons, the United Nation atomic watchdog said on Monday, citing satellite imagery and echoing recent comments from a US think-tank.

"The indications that we have obtained... (are of) activities related to the five-megawatt reactor, expansion of enrichment facilities and activities related to (plutonium) reprocessing," International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano said.

"However, as we do not have inspectors on the ground we are only observing through satellite imagery. We cannot say for sure. But we have indications of certain activities through the satellite imagery," Amano told a regular news conference in Vienna.

He said that the indications spotted at the main Yongbyon complex included the "movement of vehicles, steam, discharge of warm waters or transport of material".

The type of plutonium suitable for a nuclear bomb typically needs to be extracted from spent nuclear reactor fuel.

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