On the 10th, satellite photos of private companies were released.
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The US North Korean media reported that the operation of some buildings that produce nuclear material at a nuclear facility in North Korea’s Yongbyon was captured.
US North Korean media outlet 38 North released a satellite picture of a private company taken on the 10th, saying it caught smoke and steam rising from the Yongbyon nuclear facility complex.
The 38 North said the purpose of operating the facility was unclear. It is explained that it may not be the extraction of plutonium used in the production of nuclear weapons, but simply the treatment of radioactive waste.
According to 38 North, the thermal power plant, which has been in operation since at least the 25th of last month, is a facility that supplies steam to the radiochemistry laboratory (RCL). RCL is a place where used nuclear fuel is reprocessed to extract plutonium, and steam also erupted from a small cooling facility there.
38 North explains that the purpose of operating the cooling facility is unknown, but it is rare to detect this. From the 10th of this month, new activities were also discovered at the Uranium Enrichment Plant (UEP). Smoke and steam were captured from the uranium dioxide production building in the southwest of the centrifuge enrichment facility.
38 North said, “In the season, you can often see grains arranged to dry in the sun.” “March is not the time to dry grains, and it is unclear what the substance is.”
The Yongbyon nuclear facility is the center of North Korean nuclear weapons development. For this reason, even a small change here is often attracting attention from the international community.
/ Reporter Kihyuk Kim [email protected]
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