N Korea reactor may be operational

In the document seen by news agencies on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had detected signs the reactor in the country's north was undergoing tests that suggested it was being prepared for a restart.

The agency said it had "observed, through analysis of satellite imagery, steam discharges and the outflow of cooling water" at the reactor since late August 2013, adding that these were "consistent with the reactor's operation."

However, the IAEA stopped short of saying the facility was fully operational, as it has had "no access to the five megawatt reactor since April 2009." The IAEA relies mainly on satellite images in its assessments of North Korea's nuclear activities because Pyongyang does not allow the agency's inspectors into the country.

Renewed operations?

North Korea has previously carried out three nuclear tests - in 2006, 2009 and 2013. The reactor at the Yongbyon site was shut down in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but it renovations began on the facility following the country's most recent nuclear test last year.

According to news agency AFP, the reactor is capable of giving the isolated regime around six kilograms (13 pounds) of plutonium per year - enough for one nuclear bomb. The reactor is also thought to have produced the material used in North Korea's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

In its report, the UN agency noted there had been "further renovations" at a second, bigger, reactor at Yongbyon, suspected to be for the purposes of enriching uranium. But the IAEA added it could not confirm this, and that although it appeared the building had been completed, there had been little activity at the site over the past year.

Still, it recognized that North Korea's activities were a "matter of serious concern."

nm/dr (AFP, dpa)