North Korea's schemes to restart nuclear facilities could allow it to produce bombs within months, US officials have warned. On its part, North Korea said it needed the plants to produce electricity after the United States halted oil shipments.
The US and the United Nations nuclear watchdog are particularly concerned that monitoring equipment has been removed from sites that were shut down under non-proliferation deals, including one plant that is believed to make weapons-grade plutonium.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been monitoring the facilities, said Pyongyang this weekend had unsealed a spent fuel storage chamber that holds 8,000 irradiated fuel rods.
"As the spent fuel contains a significant amount of plutonium, (North Korea's) action is of great nonproliferation concern," Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director-general, said in a press release Sunday.
"The 8000-odd spent fuel rods are of particular concern because they could be reprocessed to recover plutonium for nuclear weapons," State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said. (Albawaba.com)
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