SEOUL (Reuters) – Satellite images suggest that recent floods in North Korea may have linked harmful pump houses to the country’s main nuclear facility, a U.S. think tank said on Thursday.
A view from the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center shows flooding along the banks of the Kuryong River in Yongbyon, North Korea, August 6, 2020. Image taken August 6, 2020. Mandatory credit Airbus Defense and Space and 38 North / Pleiades © CNES 2020 , Distribution Airbus DS / Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – This image is provided by a third party. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT. DON’T GET FREE
Analysts at 38 North, a website that monitors North Korea, said commercial satellite images from August 6-11 showed how vulnerable Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center’s nuclear reactor systems are to extreme weather events.
The Korean Peninsula has been hammered by one of the longest cleansing spells in recent history, with floods and earthquakes causing damage and deaths in both North and South Korea.
Located on the banks of the Kuryong River, about 100 km (60 miles) north of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, Yongbyon is home to nuclear reactors, fire treatment plants and uranium enrichment facilities thought to be used in nuclear weapons. the land program.
The five megawatt reactor – believed to be used to produce plutonium from weapons – does not appear to have worked for some time, and an experimental light water reactor (ELWR) has not yet come online, but such flooding in the future would probably force a shutdown. , said the 38 North report.
“Damage to the pumps and pipes in the pump houses is the biggest vulnerability for the reactors,” the report said. “If the reactors were working, for example, the inability to cool them would require them to shut down.”
As the downstream continued to flow, it appeared unable to reach the Uranium Enrichment Plant of the Yongbyon facility and on August 11, the water appeared to recede slightly, 38 North said.
North Korea’s state media have not reported any damage to Yongbyon, but reported this week that senior leaders walked floodplains, provided assistance and provided guidance on how to prevent the high water damage from growing.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the 38th North report, but said it was always monitoring developments related to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and maintaining close cooperation with the U.S. government.
At a summit with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam in 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered to dismantle Yongbyon here in exchange for relief from a variety of international sanctions implemented against North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
At the time, Trump said he rejected that deal because Yongbyon is only one part of the North’s nuclear program, and was not enough of a concession to loosen so many sanctions.
Report by Josh Smith. Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin. Edited by Lincoln Feast.
.
