US institute: NKorea reactor appears to restart

[The Straight Story]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. research institute says North Korea appears to be restarting a plutonium reactor, in a move that could raise renewed international alarm over its nuclear weapons program.

The five-megawatt reactor at Nyongbyon (nee-YUHNG'-bee-yuhn) was shuttered in 2007 under a disarmament agreement. Pyongyang (pyuhng-yahng) announced in April plans to restart it.

Without access to the secretive facility, it is difficult to say with certainty that the reactor is operating again.

But the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies says an Aug. 31 commercial satellite image shows white steam rising from a building that houses steam turbines and electric generators that are driven by heat from the reactor.


http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-institute-nkorea-reactor-appears-restart

[gordianot]

1. Where are the keepers on the northern border of North Korea?

I thought they put their foot down on further mischief.