North Korea has made “very serious” advances in its abilities to turn out nuclear weapons, with the probable addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, as it stepped up activity at a key complex, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
Enriching uranium can provide an alternative, and experts say, a more effective, path to acquiring weapons-grade material in addition to reprocessing spent plutonium extracted from a nuclear reactor.
Speaking in Seoul, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed a rapid rise in activity at the 5-megawatt reactor, the reprocessing unit, a light water reactor and other facilities at the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex.