'pyongyang Still Running Uranium Enrichment Facilities'

North Korea seems to be operating uranium enrichment facilities normally at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, South Korea's spy agency was quoted as saying by lawmakers.

'(North Korea's) uranium enrichment facilities were known to be in normal operation even before the recent summit between the leaders of between the United States and North Korea,' Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), was quoted as telling lawmakers at the closed-door briefing Tuesday.

The spy agency said that North Korea stopped the operation of its 5-megawatt reactor at its sprawling nuclear complex in Yongbyon late last year with no signs of reprocessing activities.

At a press briefing Tuesday, lawmakers said the North has been keeping the nuclear reactor dormant, but they did not make public the North's uranium enrichment activities at Yongbyon.

The Yongbyon complex includes the 5-megawatt reactor, spent fuel reprocessing facilities and research and uranium enrichment buildings.

Its uranium enrichment facilities came under the international spotlight in November 2010 when US nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker was invited to see 2,000 centrifuges capable of producing up to 40 kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU).

U.S President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended their second summit in Hanoi last week without any agreement due to their differences on the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief.

Washington said...