Uranium Enrichment Likely Ongoing In North Korea - International Atomic Energy Agency

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2021) International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said that North Korea is likely engaged in enriching uranuim.

"What we see is a lot of activity," Grossi said, adding that the program has expanded activity-wise and geographically in the country as compared to 2009.

Grossi went on to say that the site in question in Yongbyon is no longer a compound but "much more than that."

In August, IAEA published a report showing that North Korea resumed operation of its 5MW nuclear reactor for producing plutonium in the Yongbyon complex.

IAEA registered signs of the reactor's activity, including the discharge of cooling water, despite North Korea's promise in 2018 to dismantle all nuclear facilities in Yongbyon.

North Korea expelled the IAEA inspectors in 2009 and blew off a nuclear bomb at an underground test site in 2017 in what remains to be its largest nuclear test to date.

The United Nations has imposed several rounds of sanctions against North Korea in a bid to force it to halt itsnuclear and ballistic missile research.