Pyongyang reactivates its nuclear reactor
Seoul ( AsiaNews
) - The government of North Korea has authorized the resumption of the Yongbyon
nuclear reactor , capable of producing about 6 kg of plutonium per year war . White
smoke has been spotted spilling out from the smokestacks, a color and texture that
has been identified as one that is issued by the complexes' steam turbines. This
was stated by the website 38North , connected to the US- Korea Institute at Johns
Hopkins University after examining some recent satellite images.
Pyongyang
had announced the intention to reactivate
the reactor in April. It
has a capacity of 5 megawatts and was shut down in 2007 as part of the
agreements reached by the six-party talks on nuclear disarmament . In
December of 2008, Pyongyang quit the talks - which includes the two Koreas, the
U.S., China , Russia and Japan - and enacted a policy of aggression
particularly against Seoul, to the point
that Beijing, a historical ally of the North, was forced to intervene to appease the
warlike proclamations of the Kim regime .
However,
following an escalation of military and diplomatic tension that brought the
peninsula to the brink of war, the government in Pyongyang calmed the waters
with a series of bilateral talks with Seoul. These
have produced both the reopening
of the inter-Korean industrial complex of Kaesong that the resumption of meetings
between families separated by the war of 1950. Excluding
any last minute hitches, both events are planned for next week.
Choi
Jin Wook, a researcher with the Korea Institute for National Unification in
Seoul, commented to Daily NK earlier today, "For the manufacture of nuclear
weapons at Yongbyon, they will have to run it for at least six months. Also, it
is worn out so the problem of safety is still there. It shows that North Korea,
quite unlike the conciliatory appearance they are showing to the outside, does
not intend to abandon its nuclear capabilities."
12/02/2016 15:14
29/10/2021 10:13