Rumors doing the rounds that North Korea plans to restart its nuclear reactor

#yongbyon #nuclearreactor #northkorea Based on satellite images that reveal steam coming out from the Yongbyon plant and an increase in melted snow, observers feel that North Korea may be on its way to revive its interest in nuclear activities. It could be making efforts to restart a nuclear reactor which has the capability to produce fuel for a nuclear bomb. This is the opinion of The US-Korea Institute which is an American think tank.
This institute is based at Johns Hopkins University in Washington and as per its report, the satellite images were of the period between 24 December and 11 January and showed new activity at Yongbyon. These could indicate that the North Koreans were making efforts to restart the plutonium production reactor that had been lying dormant for almost five months. The Yongbyon reactor had been shut down in 2007 and restarted in 2013.
Of course, the satellite images were not necessarily conclusive proof of the intentions of Pyongyang. The last time any activity was seen at the site was in November when North Korea had threatened to launch a fourth nuclear test in response to a United Nations move to probe the country's human rights violations.
South Korea's defense ministry has reported that there was "no circumstantial report that North Korea is making final preparations for a test". North Korea has already conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.