N. Korea Could Restart Nuclear Reactor Operation
By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
It will take at least six months for North Korea to reactivate the nuclear complex in Yongbyon if it moves to withdraw from the six-party agreements to shut down the reactor, a U.S. atomic energy expert said.
Professor Siegfried S. Hecker of Stanford University, who recently visited Yongbyon, said, ``North Korea will have only limited capacity for plutonium production if the country decides to break out of the six-party agreement and restart nuclear operations.''
After a delay of ``six to 18'' months, depending on how far disablement proceeds, they would be able to regain their prior production rate of six kilograms (or roughly one bomb's worth) of plutonium per year, Hecker told the U.S. Congress.
The 50- and 200-megawatt reactors do not appear salvageable, he said. ``Hence, the DPRK will not be able to ramp up plutonium production over the next five to 10 years.'' Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the official name of the North.
If the development proceeds to dismantlement, then no plutonium production is likely for the same time frame, he added.
Hecker said that the most important risk-reduction actions are to stop the production of more plutonium and to stop exports of existing plutonium and nuclear technologies.
He said, ``The current situation puts us within reach of stopping plutonium production for the foreseeable future,'' adding that the five parties ― the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea ― should do everything in their power to get the DPRK to finish the disablement expeditiously and to move on to dismantlement.
``Whereas the U.S. should continue to press for a complete and correct declaration, it is more important to stop additional production than it is to substantiate whether the current inventory is 30 or 50 kilograms and to find out to exactly what level they developed uranium enrichment,'' he said.
He cited the remarks by North Korean officials, who stated that they will not proceed with a more complete declaration list until the other parties meet their Oct. 3 commitments.
``They told us that they reported a total separated plutonium inventory of 30 kilograms (sufficient for four to five bombs) to the U.S. in November 2007,'' he said.
In response to Hecker's question about declaration of their weapon making facilities, the officials said they are also not prepared to do so until the other parties meet their commitments, he said.