BERLIN — There are no signs that North Korea has been reprocessing fuel from its main nuclear reactor into plutonium over the past year, but Pyongyang appears to still be enriching uranium, which could potentially be used in a nuclear weapon, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog said Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency has not had inspectors in North Korea since they were expelled in 2009, but said in a report dated Sept. 1 that it continues to prepare them to return, should leader Kim Jong Un decide to re-admit them. Meanwhile, it said it has intensified its open source information collection and expanded its collection and analysis of satellite imagery to monitor the country's nuclear program. Still, it said, without inspectors to carry out verification, the IAEA's knowledge of North Korea's nuclear program “is limited and, as further nuclear activities take place in the country, this knowledge is declining.”

Source: International New York Times September 02, 2020 15:45 UTC