North Korea is once again producing plutonium for nuclear bombs

North Korea's plutonium plant in Yongbyon is believed to be back up and running, indicating the country has no plans to heed international sanctions against its nuclear program, a senior official from the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — which monitors the country's activity via satellite — first reported signs that the reactor, which reprocesses spent reactor fuel, was active once again.

"They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests," the U.S. official told Reuters. "So they are repeating that process. That's what they're doing."

The reactor was built in the 1980s, and produced the fuel that powered the country's first nuclear weapons. However, it was shut down in 2007 under a since-failed "international disarmament-for-aid deal," Reuters reports.

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International sanctions were once again tightened on North Korea in January, after the country conducted its fourth nuclear test. Experts contend the restarted reactor could make enough plutonium annually for one bomb.