North Korea and the "shut" reactor

North Korea's Nuclear Program. Another Front for the Biden administration.

August, 2021.

"Some time ago, I mentioned the real possibility that the lack of a fair solution to the unjustified withdrawal of the United States from the nuclear agreement with Iran (JCPOA) and the incomprehensible conditions for its return to this agreement could cause North Korea's positions related to the limitations of its nuclear program under discussion with the US to become harder than before. It seems that time is giving me the reason.

For the first time since 2018, North Korea has begun to operate its nuclear facilities to produce the nuclear fuel necessary to make atomic bombs, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently released.

Undoubtedly, North Korea's actions represent a radical change after the rapprochement process with Seoul and Washington opened three years ago and underlined Pyongyang's plans to continue developing its nuclear program without having a fair approach that would allow the dialogue on denuclearization to be resumed. That dialogue is suspended since 2019.

The stalemate on the US return to the Iran nuclear agreement after its withdrawal in 2018 has convinced the North Korean government that the US is not a reliable negotiator and it is a waste of time to resume the negotiations for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula under the present circumstance.

The IAEA report indicates that since February 2021, the North Korean government has resumed activities at the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center, first reactivating its system for reprocessing nuclear fuel, and, starting in July, it began operations at its Magnox 5 MW(e) experimental reactor.

According to the IAEA report, these activities are deeply concerning but should not surprise anyone because they do not change the former behavior of the country neither its classification as a nuclear power. What could happen is an increase in the number of nuclear weapons in North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

It is important not to forget that North Korea is not a state party to the NPT or an IAEA member state, and for this reason, the IAEA lacks access to the nuclear facilities in the Yongbyon complex and any other facility located inside its territory, so its report is based on satellite images and other types of information that have been obtained from other sources. Because North Korea is not an NPT state party, it has the same status as India, Pakistan, and Israel.

The IAEA report indicates that the thermal plant that supplies steam to the Yongbyon radiochemical laboratory - in charge of reprocessing the fuel used in the Magnox experimental reactor to obtain plutonium for atomic bombs - has been operational from mid-February this year until the beginning of July. IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said in June that the duration of the lab's activity was consistent with the time required for a reprocessing campaign. However, he commented that it was not possible to confirm that reprocessing was taking place. IAEA inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2009, and the agency has been forced to remotely monitor the country's nuclear facilities because North Korea is no longer an IAEA member state or NPT state party.

The fact that a reprocessing campaign has been launched probably indicates that North Korea had already produced nuclear fuel for reprocessing. However, it is not clear if that fuel was a few years old or produced recently.

According to the IAEA document mentioned above, since the beginning of July, there have been indications, including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the experimental reactor at Yongbyon.

The IAEA report explains that activity has also persisted in the experimental light water reactor - under construction since 2009 - in Yongbyong or the Pyongsan mining complex, one of the points North Korea obtains uranium for the Magnox experimental reactor. Activities have also been reported at the so-called "Kangson complex," a compound on the outskirts of the North Korean capital believed to play a role in uranium enrichment within the North Korean nuclear program.

The IAEA considers that all these activities constitute a clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions promulgated against Pyongyang for its development of weapons of mass destruction.

This new report comes after the North Korean government decided to interrupt communications with Seoul again this month in protest at the holding of joint military exercises between South Korea and the US in the south of the peninsula. These maneuvers that are well known irritate the North Korean government and always provoke an unpredictable reaction. These maneuvers are carried out precisely when Washington insisted again that it is willing to meet with Pyongyang "wherever and whenever" to resume the denuclearization talks without obtaining a North Korean response for the moment.

It is not easy to believe that the US administration trusts that it will achieve its objectives using the old and unflexible US policy for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The US policy was and still is a wrong one and is not helping to resume the negotiations with North Korea on this subject, particularly after the current situation of the Vienna negotiations on the return of the US to the JCPOA.

If the US really wishes to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, then it should change its negotiation approach and should not pretend to achieve everything without giving anything."

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