The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea as it is commonly known, may have restarted a nuclear reactor that many believe is used to make plutonium for nuclear weapons.
That’s according to a recently released report from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA is considered the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
According to the IAEA, experts saw cooling water discharge in July, leading them to believe the Yongbyon plant has been restarted. This is the first time they’ve seen the discharge since December 2018.
In the report, the IAEA said North Korea’s “nuclear activities continue to be a cause for serious concern.” The report went on to say, “The continuation of the DPRK’s nuclear programme is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”
What does that mean for America?
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, North Korea has tested all sorts of different missiles, including some intercontinental ones. Experts aren’t sure how many missiles North Korea has in its arsenal. United States intelligence officials believe when they last checked, North Korea had enough “fissile material—the core component of nuclear weapons—for sixty-five weapons, and that every year it produces enough fissile material for twelve additional weapons.”
In November 2017, North Korea tested one of its missiles and it went higher than the International Space Station before landing just off Japan’s coast. The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that had that missile been shot in a flatter manner, that missile could reach anywhere on the U.S. mainland.
The United Nations is limited in how it can respond to North Korea. If North Korea is bombed, the fear is it will retaliate against its neighbors, putting them at risk.
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, an American expert in nuclear nonproliferation and geopolitics who works as an Adjunct Professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and director of the CNS East Asia Nonproliferation Program explained, “We’re going to have to learn to live with North Korea’s ability to target the United States with nuclear weapons.”
