Tag Archives: North Korea Nuclear Program

Satellite images show activity at North Korea nuclear test site

A satellite image of the area around North Korea's Punggye-Ri nuclear test site shows graphics pointing to what monitoring group 38 North says are signs of increased activity, in a photo released by the 38 North group

SEOUL (Reuters) – An increase in activity at North Korea’s nuclear test site could signal preparations for a new test or a collection of data from its last one, a U.S.-based monitoring group said on Friday, citing satellite images.

The 38 North group, run by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, said there was activity at all three tunnel complexes at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site involving a large vehicle and personnel.

“One possible reason for this activity is to collect data on the Sept. 9 test although other purposes cannot be ruled out, such as sealing the portal or other preparations related to a new test,” the group said, referring to the last nuclear test.

The North is believed to be ready for another nuclear test at any time and there has been speculation it could mark the Oct. 10 anniversary of the founding of its Workers’ Party with another underground detonation.

North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and has since then defied U.N. sanctions and rejected international talks to press ahead with the development of the weapons and missiles to carry them, which it says it needs for its defense.

In January, it conducted its fourth nuclear test and last month its fifth and biggest, on the anniversary of the nation’s founding.

The United States and South Korea are pushing for tighter sanctions against North Korea by closing loopholes left in a U.N. Security Council resolution in March.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told a briefing there were no particular indication of a plan for a nuclear test timed to coincide with the Oct. 10 anniversary.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified government official that there was activity at the North’s rocket launch station near the west coast that could be preparations for a long-range missile launch.

Last month, the North said it had successfully conducted a ground test of a new rocket engine that would  be used to launch satellites. South Korea said the engine could be used for a long-range missile.

North Korea last month fired three missiles that flew about 1,000 km (600 miles). In August, it tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile that international experts said showed considerable progress.

Japan said the possibility of further “provocative action” by North Korea could not be ruled out.

“The government is taking all possible measures in gathering information, exercising vigilance and taking surveillance activities to be able to respond to any situations,” Japan’s   Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Between reckless ally and old rival, China in a bind over North Korea

A general view shows the unfinished New Yalu River bridge that was designed to connect China's Dandong New Zone, Liaoning province, and North Korea's Sinuiju.

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michelle Nichols

BEIJING/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – China is in a bind over what to do about North Korea’s stepped-up nuclear and missile tests, even though it is annoyed with its ally and has started talks with other U.N. Security Council members on a new sanctions resolution against Pyongyang.

China shares a long land border with North Korea and is seen as the only country with real power to bring about change in the isolated and belligerent nation. However, Beijing fears strengthening sanctions could lead to collapse in North Korea, and it also believes the United States and its ally South Korea share responsibility for growing tensions in the region.

China is in a difficult spot, a source close to the Chinese leadership told Reuters when asked if Beijing’s attitude to North Korea had changed after its fifth nuclear test last week.

“On the one hand, China is resolutely opposed to North Korea developing nuclear weapons for fear of triggering a nuclear arms race in the region,” the source said, referring to Japan and South Korea following in Pyongyang’s footsteps.

“On the other hand, North Korea is a big headache but regime change is not an option,” the source added. “Collapse of the regime would lead to chaos in (China’s) northeast” bordering North Korea, the source said, requesting anonymity.

The prospect of a unified Korea under Seoul’s leadership and the possibility of U.S. troops on China’s borders has long been a nightmare for Beijing.

A collapse in North Korea, sending a flood of refugees across the relatively porous border into China’s rustbelt northeastern provinces, would also be deeply destabilizing to Beijing’s rule as well as a huge economic cost.

Those concerns have been around for years, but now Beijing is also deeply angered by a U.S. decision to deploy an advanced anti-missile system in South Korea, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. It has said its own security has been compromised and that North Korea’s recent belligerence is due to this deployment.

Publicly, China has not linked the THAAD deployment with whether it will support sanctions on North Korea. It condemned the latest missile and nuclear tests but said sanctions alone could not resolve the issue and has called for a resumption of talks with Pyongyang.

Beijing has also said it will work within the United Nations to formulate a necessary response to its fifth nuclear test.

“We’re in negotiations on a U.N. Security Council resolution,” Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday.

Diplomats said the talks were at an early stage and negotiations were likely to be long and tough.

IRRITATION AND CONSENSUS

One senior U.N. diplomat said Beijing made displeasure with Pyongyang clear at an earlier Security Council meeting called after North Korea tested three medium range missiles at an embarrassing time – when U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders were gathered for the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou this month.

“The tone of the whole discussion was much more consensual, it didn’t feel like there was two camps fighting arguing with each other,” said the diplomat. “Of course there continue to be different views about sanctions.”

The United States has called on Beijing to use its influence to get North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions, and to close sanctions “loopholes”, since the existing ones had done little to prevent Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear and missile programs.

Shen Wenhui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told influential state-run newspaper the Global Times last week that crippling sanctions would cause a “humanitarian disaster” in North Korea.

“In putting sanctions on North Korea, the international community must reduce the effect on ordinary people to the greatest possible extent,” Shen wrote.

China’s concerns also include the larger issue of what Beijing sees as Washington’s attempts to surround it under Obama’s strategic “rebalance” towards Asia. Besides THAAD, the dispute in the South China Sea, cybersecurity and human rights have marred ties between the world’s two biggest economies.

Chinese officials also say that the West over-estimates its influence with North Korea.

“I think any idea to ask North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons would fail, and any idea to ask South Korea to abandon THAAD would fail,” said Shen Dingli, a professor at Shanghai’s elite Fudan University and director of the school’s Program on Arms Control and Regional Security.

North Korea is useful for China, Shen added. “China needs North Korea to counter the United States.”

In Seoul, some are already accepting that China will not do much more to punish North Korea.

“The sanctions that North Korea will not be able to endure will be all blocked by China even without being asked by the North,” Chun Yung-woo, a former South Korean national security adviser, told Reuters. “So the North is hiding behind that and comfortably pursuing the nuclear programmer’s.”

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, James Pearson, Jack Kim and Ju-min Park in Seoul and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Top diplomats from U.S., Japan, South Korea to meet on North Korea

Ryoo Yong-gyu, Earthquake and Volcano Monitoring Division Director, points at where seismic waves observed in South Korea came from, during a media briefing at Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul

By Tony Munroe and Ben Blanchard

SEOUL/BEIJING, Sept 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in New York on Sunday to discuss responses to North Korea’s latest nuclear test, South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The three countries are pushing for tough new U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea after the isolated country on Friday conducted its fifth and largest nuclear test.

The blast was in defiance of U.N. sanctions that were tightened in March.

China, the North’s chief ally, backed the March resolution but is more resistant to harsh new sanctions this time after the United States and South Korea decided to deploy a sophisticated anti-missile system in the South, which China adamantly opposes.

South Korea said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his counterparts Kerry and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will meet during the annual U.N. General Assembly to discuss putting further pressure on North Korea.

The United States wants China to do more, with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter last week singling out the role he said China should play in curbing its neighbor.

TESTING TIMES

North Korea has been testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate this year under young leader Kim Jong Un.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with South Korea’s Yun by phone, expressing Beijing’s opposition to the North’s latest nuclear test but also reiterating opposition to the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THADD) anti-missile system in the South, China’s foreign ministry said.

China is North Korea’s most important diplomatic and trade partner and refuses to cut the country off completely, fearing it could collapse.

Beijing’s official People’s Daily newspaper on Wednesday called the United States a troublemaker and said it has no right to lecture China about taking responsibility for reining in North Korea as tensions on the peninsula are a direct result of U.S. actions.

In a commentary, the ruling Communist Party’s official paper said the United States was pretending it had nothing to do with the North Korea issue and was putting the blame on others.

“People have reason to doubt whether Washington is willing to make the effort to push the North Korea issue in the direction of a resolution,” the paper said.

China and Russia have pushed for a resumption of six party talks on denuclearization in North Korea. The talks, which also involve Japan, South Korea and the United States, have been on hold since 2008.

Washington has said it is willing to negotiate with the North if it the country commits to denuclearization, which Pyongyang has refused to do.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will seek Cuba’s help in responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs during a rare visit to Havana next week, a spokesman said.

North Korea appeared to resume plutonium production this year

File photo of North Korean flag flying on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva

VIENNA (Reuters) – North Korea appeared to resume activities this year aimed at producing plutonium, which can be used in the core of an atomic bomb, the U.N. nuclear watchdog has confirmed, though it added that signs of those activities stopped last month.

Pyongyang vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear facilities, including the main reactor at its Yongbyon site that had been shut down and has been at the heart of its weapons program.

It said last year that Yongbyon was operating and that it was working to improve the “quality and quantity” of its nuclear weapons. It has since carried out what is widely believed to have been its fourth nuclear test.

“From the first quarter of 2016, there were multiple indications consistent with the radiochemical laboratory’s operation,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano said in a report to the agency’s annual General Conference, referring to a site used to reprocess plutonium.

“Such indications ceased in early July 2016,” Amano said in the report posted online and dated Friday. Those indications included deliveries of chemical tanks and the operation of a steam plant linked to the lab, the report said.

The IAEA, which has no access to North Korea and mainly monitors its activities by satellite, said last year it had seen signs of a resumption of activity at Yongbyon, including at the main reactor.

There were signs the reactor had been running in the past year, with a pause between October and December, probably to refill it with enough fuel for the next two years, according to the report dated Friday.

Amano said in June that the agency had seen signs of reprocessing, the production of plutonium from spent reactor fuel, at Yongbyon.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency last week quoted North Korea as saying it had resumed plutonium production by reprocessing and had no plans to stop nuclear tests as long as perceived U.S. threats remain.

North Korea’s Atomic Energy Institute, which has jurisdiction over Yongbyon, also told Kyodo it had been producing highly enriched uranium necessary for nuclear arms and power “as scheduled”.

“There were indications consistent with the use of the reported centrifuge enrichment facility,” Amano’s report to the General Conference, which will be held at the end of September, said, adding that construction work had been carried out around the building that houses the facility.

“There were new construction and refurbishment activities on the (Yongbyon) site, which are broadly consistent with (North Korea’s) statement that all the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon have been ‘rearranged, changed or readjusted’,” it added.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Dominic Evans)

North Korea may be ‘significantly’ upping nuclear bomb output

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives field guidance to the newly built Ryugyong Kimchi Factory

By David Brunnstrom and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea may be significantly expanding its nuclear weapons production and could have added six or more weapons to its stockpile in the last 18 months, a U.S. research institute said on Tuesday.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) estimated last year that North Korea had 10 to 16 nuclear weapons at the end of 2014. It based that conclusion on an analysis of the country’s production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium recovered from spent nuclear fuel.

In revised estimates contained in a report provided to Reuters, the institute’s David Albright and Serena Kelleher-Vergantini said North Korea may have added another four to six weapons since then, for a total of 13 to 21 or even more today.

The report said the 13 to 21 estimate did not take into account the possible production of additional highly enriched uranium at a second centrifuge plant thought to exist in North Korea.

“Nonetheless, this exercise, despite not being comprehensive, shows that North Korea could be significantly increasing its nuclear weapons capabilities,” the report said, adding that most of the increase could be attributed to the production of weapons-grade uranium.

The report came a week after a senior U.S. State Department official told Reuters that North Korea had restarted production of plutonium fuel, indicating that it planned to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions that followed its fourth nuclear test in January.

Plutonium also can be used to make nuclear weapons.

The institute’s report said the group independently confirmed activity inside the radiochemical laboratory at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear site.

It said commercial satellite imagery from June 8 did not show direct signs, but noted “indirect signatures associated with plutonium-separation” there.

These included the removal of tanks previously spotted in front of the laboratory’s reception building and signs that a coal-fired steam generation plant may have been active on June 8.

The report also noted signs of external activity at a site the institute identified as a possible isotope-separation facility that could be used to produce tritium for thermonuclear weapons that North Korea has said it intends to develop.

North Korea vowed in 2013 to restart all its nuclear facilities, including the main reactor and a smaller plant at Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of an international disarmament-for-aid deal that later collapsed.

North Korea announced at a rare congress of its ruling Workers’ Party last month that it would strengthen its nuclear weapons capability.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Richard Chang)

North Korea restarts plutonium production for nuclear bombs

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the construction site of Ryongaksan soap factory in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency

By Jonathan Landay, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea has restarted production of plutonium fuel, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday, showing that it plans to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions.

The U.S. assessment came a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said it had “indications” that Pyongyang has reactivated a plant to recover plutonium from spent reactor fuel at Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex.

The latest developments suggest North Korea’s reclusive regime is working to ensure a steady supply of materials for its drive to build warheads, despite tightened international sanctions after its fourth nuclear test in January.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Washington is worried by the new plutonium reprocessing effort, but he offered no explicit word on any U.S. response.

“Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern,” the official told Reuters.

“They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that’s where they’ve obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process,” the official said. “That’s what they’re doing.”

North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear facilities, including the main reactor and the smaller plant at Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of an international disarmament-for-aid deal that later collapsed.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has no access to North Korea and mainly monitors its activities by satellite, said last year it had seen signs of a resumption of activity at Yongbyon.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told a news conference in Vienna on Monday that there have been indications of renewed plutonium reprocessing activities at Yongbyon. Reprocessing involves extracting plutonium from spent reactor fuel, one route to obtaining bomb fuel other than uranium enrichment.

“I would agree that there are indications,” the U.S. official said.

The official declined to confirm whether this determination was made from satellite imagery or intelligence sources, or to say how much plutonium North Korea could produce by this method.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Cheong Joon-hee said Seoul was closely watching movements related to the North’s nuclear facility “with grave concern” but declined to comment directly on plutonium production.

A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry said China, North Korea’s lone major ally, has always promoted the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and a resolution of the issue via talks.

“We hope all parties can work hard together to put the nuclear issue back on the track of dialogue and negotiations,” spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

SHROUDED IN SECRECY

North Korea announced at a rare congress of its ruling Workers’ Party last month that it would strengthen its defensive nuclear weapons capability.

It had already declared itself “a responsible nuclear weapons state” and disavowed the use of nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is first infringed by others with nuclear arms.

While North Korea in the past has often obtained key components for its nuclear program from other countries despite international sanctions, there was no sign of any recent outside procurement involved in reactivating its plutonium reprocessing, the U.S. official said.

There is little proven knowledge about the quantities of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium that North Korea possesses, or its ability to produce either, though plutonium from spent fuel at Yongbyon is widely believed to have been used in its nuclear bombs.

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said last month the North probably had about 40 kg (88 lb) of plutonium. That would be enough to make eight to 10 bombs, according to experts.

Operating the 5 megawatt reactor could yield about 5-6 kg of plutonium a year, they said.

Experts at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington predicted last year that North Korea’s nuclear weapons stockpile could grow to 20, 50 or 100 bombs within five years, from an estimated 10 to 16 weapons at that time.

North Korea has come under tightening international pressure over its nuclear weapons program, including tougher U.N. sanctions adopted in March backed by China, following its most recent nuclear blast and ballistic missile tests.

The website 38 North reported last week, based on commercial satellite imagery, that exhaust plumes had been detected twice in May from the thermal plant at Yongbyon’s Radiochemical Laboratory, the site’s main reprocessing installation.

The Institute for Science and International Security also reported exhaust emissions from a chimney at the plant, which it said was often associated with reprocessing activities there.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by James Dalgleish and Nick Macfie)

Europe steps up North Korea sanctions with oil, finance bans

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a ceremony at the meeting hall of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union stepped up its sanctions on North Korea on Friday with near-blanket trade and travel bans after Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test and rocket launch, a move going beyond new U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Pyongyang is also banned from selling any oil-related or luxury goods to the European Union, while EU nations cannot invest in the country’s mining, refining and chemical industries.

“Considering that the actions of (North Korea) constitute a grave threat to international peace and security in the region and beyond, the EU decided to further expand its restrictive measures,” the Council said.

North Korea’s latest nuclear test was on Jan. 6. On Feb. 7, it launched a rocket that the United States said used banned ballistic missile technology. Pyongyang said it was a peaceful satellite launch.

The EU measures, which diplomats say are designed to show solidarity with major EU trade partners South Korea and Japan, come on top of asset freezes and travel bans for another 16 North Koreans agreed earlier this year. That puts 66 people and 42 companies under the EU sanctions regime.

EU foreign ministers have reinforced their sanctions several times in recent years to include asset freezes and bans on financing and the delivery of banknotes.

EU countries cannot export arms or metals used in ballistic missile systems and are banned from selling gold, diamonds and luxury goods to North Korea. Joint ventures are outlawed.

However, the impact of the new measures is likely to be limited as trade between the European Union and North Korea fell to just 34 million euros in 2014 from more than 300 million euros a decade ago.

Germany and Sweden are also reluctant to totally isolate North Korea. They have maintained diplomatic ties in Pyongyang since the 1970s, providing humanitarian aid to North Koreans.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

North Korea Nuclear Missile Capable

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a visit to the Sinhung Machine Plant in this undated photo released by North Korea's

y Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea can mount a nuclear warhead on a medium-range missile, a South Korean official said on Tuesday in a new assessment of the capability of a country that conducted its fourth nuclear test this year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last month his country had miniaturized nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles. It was his first direct statement of a claim often made in state media though never independently verified. [nL4N16G5IY]

“We believe they have accomplished miniaturization of a nuclear warhead to mount it on a Rodong missile,” the South Korean official, with knowledge of South Korea’s assessment of the North’s nuclear program, told a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity.

The Rodong missile can fire a 1 tonne (1,100 lb) warhead a distance of up to 2,000 km (1,250 miles), the official said. That would put all of South Korea, most of Japan and parts of Russia and China in range.

“We believe they have the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on a Rodong. Whether they will fire it like that is a political decision,” said the official.

There was no direct evidence that the North has successfully mounted a warhead on such a missile, the South Korean official said. He declined to discuss the basis for the change in assessment.

Staunch U.S. ally South Korea has been facing off against its rival to the north for decades.

The South’s conservative president, Park Geun-hye, has reversed a policy of trying to engage the North in dialogue and has instead adopted a hard line against it, particularly since the North conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and a month later launched a long-range rocket putting an object into space orbit.

The test and launch prompted the U.N. Security Council to impose new sanctions.

South Korea has previously said North Korea had made progress in its efforts to miniaturize a nuclear warhead but the capability was incomplete. South Korea’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that assessment remained the military’s position.

Rodong missiles, developed from Soviet-era Scud missiles, make up the bulk of the North’s short- and medium-range missile arsenal with an estimated stockpile of 200.

Experts have predicted that the delivery vehicle for the North’s first nuclear warhead would be the medium-range Rodong missile, rather than an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which the North has yet to test.

Despite threats to strike the mainland United States, the North is seen as several years away from building an ICBM that can carry a nuclear warhead.

Experts have previously said a functioning mid-range nuclear missile would need the technology to overcome the stress of launch and re-entry and to strike the target with precision, which requires repeated testing.

The North fired a Rodong missile in March. It flew about 800 km (500 miles) into the sea, in the first such launch since two Rodongs were fired in 2014.

(Editing by Tony Munroe, Robert Birsel)

South Korea Planning Cyber-attacks On North Korea

South Korea is developing cyber-weapons similar to those used by western governments in their battle against North Korea.

The country’s defense ministry said it is seeking weapons similar to the Stuxnet virus, which infiltrated and damaged Iranian nuclear plants.  The South Korean military will carry out missions using the new software.  The missions are believed to be focused entirely on North Korea but the information given to the BBC did not specify that.

The Defense Ministry reportedly told the government their plans to use cyberweapons this week.

The cyberweapons are believed to be a response by the South to North Korea’s continued testing of nuclear weapons and missiles.  The overall plan by South Korea included using social media and networking for a propaganda campaign against the North.

Computer security experts said they’re concerned about the South Korean plan because it’s impossible to control a virus once it’s been released.

North Korea Removes Missiles From Coast

North Korea has quietly removed two medium-range missile from their eastern coastline.  U.S. officials state that this is possibly a sign of weakening hostility on the Korean peninsula despite no official word from Pyongyang that North Korea was lowering its military posture.

The missiles had been put in place to back up dictator Kim Jong-un’s declarations that North Korea would bomb South Korea, Japan or the United States because of United Nations sanctions placed after the North’s third nuclear bomb test.  The North was also angry about joint South Korea/United States military drills despite the fact the drills happen every year. Continue reading →