Tensions Rise Over North Korea's Nuclear Complex

Paraphrased by
Steve Waldrop
February 27, 2003

Seoul, South Korea- U.S. spy satelites have recently detected smoke rising from the once shuttered buildings around a loop of North Korea's Kuryong River. Trucks are seen arriving and departing, and workers are seen everywhere.

The Yongbyon Nuclear Center is one of the most heavily guarded areas in one of the world's most secretive and secluded nations. Located only 50 miles from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang . It has become the focal point of rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

American analysts aren't sure what is going on there, and some South Korean experts think the North is staging phony activity as a bargaining tool in its effort to get Washington to sign a nonagression treaty. But movement at the site has increased anxiety over the North's intentions.

Nations close by worry the North may be resuming its program to produce nuclear weapons, fearing that could bring an arms race in the region or even war. The face off also has caused some strain between Washington and South Korea's government over how to deal with the crisis.

Experts believe the complex is home to 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods that could be processed within a few months into enough weapons-grade plutonium for several atomic bombs.

"The moment they remove those rods for reprocessing will be the moment they cross the danger line," said Paek Hak-soon, a North Korean expert at Seoul's independent Sejong Institute. "Whatever they do at Yongbyon will be carefully calculated and choreographed."

U.S. officials said satellite images caught covered trucks apparently taking on cargo around the fuel rod storage facility, but they were divided over whether the North Koreans were really removing rods or just bluffing.

"They are just putting up a Potemkin village," said Kim Dong-Kyu, an analyst at Seoul's Korea University, referring to a showy facade intended to divert attention. "They know they are watched by satelites."

Paek also doesn't think the North Koreans are reprocessing fuel rods. He said the next step would be for North Korea to restart the site's nuclear reactor, which can produce more spent fuel rods.

"They will save reprocessing the spent rods as an option they can use at a more critical time, like when the U.N. Security Council tries to impose economic sanctions," Paek said.