Report by watchdog group ’38 North‘ shows that North Korea continues to upgrade facilities at its only nuclear reactor at a ‚rapid pace.‘ Despite statements…
Report by watchdog group ’38 North‘ shows that North Korea continues to upgrade facilities at its only nuclear reactor at a ‚rapid pace.‘
Despite statements by Donald Trump, quoted by Reuters, that the “total denuclearization” of North Korea has “already started,” following his June 12 “summit” meeting with the country’s dictator Kim Jong Un, new satellite images show that infrastructure improvements at North Korea’s only nuclear reactor continue at “a rapid pace.”
The images were released on Tuesday by 38 North, a Washington D. C.-based watchdog group dedicated to monitoring military and political developments in North Korea. The photos show new construction at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, where the improvements have been underway since March, 38 North said.
The improvements to the nuclear reactor include a water channel that leads to a new coolling water pump house. Water-based cooling systems are essential to the operation of a nuclear reactor, and the reactor itself is used to create plutonium, a byproduct of the reactor’s spent fuel rods. Plutonium is the highly radioactive material used to create nuclear explosive devices, as the World Nuclear Association explains.
