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Nonproliferation

An official report that the US State Department recently submitted to Congress assessed that North Korea is running a secret nuclear facility in addition to Yongbyon.

In the 2015 Report on Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments, which the US State Department submitted to Congress last week, the department said, “The United States believes there is a clear likelihood of additional unidentified nuclear facilities in the DPRK.” DPRK is North Korea’s formal name, standing for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

This is the first time that the US State Department has expressed its opinion in an official document about intelligence related to additional North Korean nuclear facilities. The document does not specify what evidence there may be for this opinion.http://www.state.gov/t/avc/rls/rpt/2015/243224.htm

After visiting the nuclear enrichment facilities at Yongbyon in Nov. 2010, Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear physicist and expert on North Korea‘s nuclear program, assessed that North Korea had a secret facility somewhere other than Yongbyon for producing highly enriched uranium (HEU).

American intelligence agencies have shared this perspective. Based on this judgment, the US government has demanded that North Korea make public the nuclear facilities it has in addition to Yongbyon as a precondition for resuming dialogue. Reportedly, North Korea has been very sensitive on this issue.

Since the violation of the agreement reached on Feb. 29, 2012, the US and South Korea have insisted that North Korea reinstate the Feb. 29 agreement among other things before talks can resume. Disclosure of nuclear facilities other than the one at Yongbyon is believed to be one of these other things.

In regard to a light water reactor that North Korea is currently building at Yongbyon, the report said that “if successfully completed and operated, the LWR could provide North Korea with a relatively small source of electricity. It also provides North Korea with a justification to possess uranium enrichment technology that could potentially be used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.”

“During the reporting period [last year], the United States consistently urged North Korea to respond to diplomatic efforts to create the conditions necessary for resumption of Six-Party Talks, premised on a demonstrated DPRK commitment to make meaningful progress toward denuclearization,” the report said. “North Korea’s continuing nuclear activities and statements attest that it currently has no intention to comply with its 2005 Joint Statement commitments and its UNSCR obligations.”

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

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