Yongbyon, North Korea
Contradicting previous claims, North Korea said this week that it did not possess nuclear weapons. An unofficial delegation of U.S. experts visited North Korea’s nuclear reactor at Yongbyon last week, where it saw what the North Koreans said was recently reprocessed plutonium. No Westerners had visited the Yongbyon site since Pyongyang kicked out U.N. inspectors in December 2002 and threatened to begin reprocessing spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium. Pyongyang said it had now shown the Americans its entire “nuclear deterrent force,” which included neither a warhead nor a uranium-enrichment program. But U.S. and South Korean intelligence believe that the totalitarian country has a sophisticated and active program to enrich uranium.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
