New building seen at N.Korea reactor site: US think-tank

[ErnstBlofeld]

Space Daily via AFP:

New construction or excavation is under way at North Korea's main nuclear reactor, near the site of a cooling tower destroyed in 2008, a private US research institute has said, citing a satellite photo.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said on its website (isis-online.org) that tracks made by heavy machinery and construction or excavation equipment were visible in the photo.

ISIS said there appeared to be ongoing construction of two small buildings next to the site of the cooling tower at Yongbyon -- which the North blew up in June 2008 in front of foreign media to dramatise its commitment to nuclear disarmament.

"It is unclear if the activity seen in this image represents preparation for construction of a new cooling tower or preparation for construction of other buildings or structures for some other purposes," it said in a post dated Thursday.

The new activity appears more extensive than would be expected for rebuilding the cooling tower, but its actual purpose cannot be determined from the image and bears watching, ISIS said.

It said the image, taken on Wednesday, was obtained from DigitalGlobe, an imagery and information company.

Yongbyon, 100 km (62 miles) north of Pyongyang, was the source of plutonium for the North's atomic weapons programme. Its stockpile is believed to be enough to build six to eight bombs.

The North shut down the reactor in July 2007 under a six-nation aid-for-disarmament accord. The following summer, it destroyed the cooling tower as part of work to disable its facilities.

The United States contributed 2.5 million dollars towards the demolition cost.

But six-party talks bogged down in December 2008 over ways to verify the North's work to put its facilities out of action. In April 2009 Pyongyang abandoned the talks and said it had resumed reprocessing spent fuel roads to make weapons-grade plutonium.

In May 2009 it conducted an atomic weapons test, its second.