(Vienna) North Korea’s nuclear activities remain “a source of serious concern”, according to the annual report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released on Wednesday.
Posted at 11:11 a.m.
The continuation of the military program is “deeply regrettable”, says the UN body, according to which it is “a clear violation of the permanent resolutions of the UN Security Council”.
The reopening of the nuclear test site is “truly disturbing”, as are the “expansion of the enrichment facility” and “the continued operation of the reactor with a capacity of five megawatts”, says the report .
At the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, work has also taken place, notes the IAEA, in particular to reopen a test tunnel. Road construction resumed in late August.
At Yongbyon, in the country’s main nuclear complex, construction of a new annex began in September 2021 and now looks “completed from the outside”, according to the Agency, which cannot determine its purpose.
The future of this nuclear complex was one of the points of contention of the second summit of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with the American president Donald Trump which ended in failure in 2019.
North Korea had offered to dismantle part of it, but not its other nuclear production infrastructure, in exchange for a “partial” lifting of economic sanctions. This offer was rejected by Washington.
In August, Pyongyang, which has conducted a record series of weapons tests this year, rejected an offer of economic aid from South Korea in exchange for its denuclearization.
The report, which incorporates all “relevant information available” to the agency, will be considered by the IAEA General Conference during the month of September.
The reclusive regime is under multiple international sanctions for its banned military programs, including nuclear ones, which have advanced considerably under Kim Jong-un’s rule.
IAEA inspectors, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, were expelled from North Korea in 2009. They now monitor it from abroad.