Aju Business Daily

HANOI -- A nuclear complex in Yongbyon about 100 km north of Pyongyang was thrown back into the spotlight this week as U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in Vietnam for their second summit.

The nuclear complex has been at the center of attention since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to push for denuclearization under a landmark peace agreement in the first summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore eight months ago. 

The complex has been used to produce fissile material for six nuclear tests from 2006 to 2017. Major installations include a 5-megawatt experimental reactor, a fuel fabrication plant, a spent fuel storage facility, a fuel reprocessing facility that recovers uranium and plutonium from spent fuel.

For almost three decades, the complex's operation has been on and off, sometimes becoming the subject of political deals.

In 2007, an agreement was reached at six-party party talks to seal the nuclear reactor and associated facilities in return for 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil. In 2008, North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program -- a cooling tower that carried off waste heat to the atmosphere, as a response to U.S. concessions.

Following the breakdown of a six-party deal, North Korea resumed the reprocessing of spent fuel to recover weapons-grade plutonium in 2009 and put the Yongbyon complex in full operation in 2015. However, satellite imagery showed the complex has not operated at a high power level.

In Yongbyon, North Korea has launched a separate nuclear energy program based on light water reactors to generate electricity. Construction of a small indigenous experimental light water reactor started in 2009, and its preliminary testing started in 2018.

Based on satellite imagery from February 11 and 21, 38 North, the website of a U.S. research institute, reported no indications that nuclear reactors in Yongbyon were in operation despite the continued movement of vehicles and personnel around them. Roads were swept clean, showing that the reactor site has been well maintained, it said.