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Yonhap: DPRK seemingly have restarted nuclear facility

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-27 14:47

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) seems to have restarted its nuclear reprocessing facility at Yongbyon, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said Wednesday, citing its source.

Related readings:  DPRK declares to tear up truce agreement  Yonhap: DPRK launches another missile  Ban Ki-moon urges DPRK to return to six-party talks  DPRK test-fires 2 additional short-range missiles  DPRK sets to fire short-range missiles: report

"The Yongbyon nuclear facility was spotted to have opened the plutonium fuel rods in mid-April, in addition to smoke rising from the steam facility later in the month," the source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

As vehicles apparently conveying chemicals were also eyed near the Yongbyon facility, the DPRK seems to have followed pre-devised processes, one of which is the recent nuclear test, Yonhap said.

The DPRK has been going through a disablement process in the Yongbyon facility as it signed an aid-for-denuclearization deal in 2007.

Pyongyang said in April that it would restart the nuclear facility in protest of a U.N. Security Council statement that condemned its long-range rocket launch earlier that month.