IAEA Estimates North Korea Could Have Restarted Yongbyon Nuclear Reactor

There are signs that operations were resumed at Yongbyon, a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in North Korea, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated in a report, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Since early July, there have been indications, including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the reactor,” the IAEA report said.

The idea of a DPRK reactor restart is “deeply troubling” and would “clearly” violate the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Concerns were sparked in the report that Pyongyang might be boosting plutonium production, with the IAEA saying there were indications of the use of a nearby laboratory to separate plutonium from spent fuel earlier removed from the reactor.

​It was noted in the report that the Yongbyon reactor has been inactive since December 2018, until the beginning of July.

After an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in September 2018, North Korea pledged to close its nuclear sites in Tongchang and Yongbyon but no official accords followed the pledges. Since then, the IAEA said several times that it observed activities at these sites, but noted it could not estimate them in detail due to a lack of access.

Most recently, according to a March report, a coal-fired steam plant at the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex was reportedly said to have returned to operation after a two-year pause.