WEB DESK
A US monitor says, North Korea produced more plutonium for its weapons programme than previously thought. The monitoring website linked to Johns Hopkins university said, thermal imagery of the Yongbyon nuclear complex appeared to show that Pyongyang had reprocessed spent fuel rods at least twice between last September and June this year.
It said, the Radiochemical Laboratory operated intermittently and there have apparently been at least two reprocessing campaigns to produce plutonium that can further increase North Korea’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
North Korea deactivated the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but began renovating it after Pyongyang’s third nuclear test in 2013.
North Korea has conducted five underground nuclear tests since 2006, and carried out its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week.