MOSCOW (Sputnik) – North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005. The United States, Japan and South Korea, as well as Russia and China, took part in talks with North Korea on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula between 2003 and 2009, when Pyongyang withdrew from the talks.
On January 6 Pyongyang claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. The United Nations previously imposed sanctions on North Korea for three tests it carried out in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
"Recent commercial satellite imagery shows new developments at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center indicating that North Korea has already begun or plans to commence a reprocessing campaign to separate additional plutonium for nuclear weapons," 38 North said in a Friday report.
The satellite imagery, taken on Monday, that the report presents shows a flatcar with tanks or casks that could be carrying chemicals or waste.
"Loaded railcars have only been observed here on a few rare occasions in the early 2000s—all associated with a reprocessing campaign. The presence of a loaded flatcar, together with the earlier presence of exhaust plumes, suggests that North Korea is preparing or conducting a reprocessing campaign to separate more plutonium for weapons," the report explains.
Pyongyang’s January hydrogen bomb test, as well as the launch, a month later, of a long-range rocket to allegedly place a satellite into orbit, in defiance of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, led to more sanctions having been imposed on North Korea by the UNSC and the United States.
The 38 North website is maintained by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. The blog, authored by its faculty and by guest commentators, analyzes various reporting on North Korea.
