North Korea says it has resumed plutonium production: Kyodo

In a written interview with Kyodo, the North's
Atomic Energy Institute, which has jurisdiction
over its main Yongbyon nuclear facilities, said:
"We have reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods
removed from a graphite-moderated reactor."
The institute also said North Korea had been
producing highly enriched uranium necessary for
nuclear arms and power "as
scheduled", Kyodo added.
The institute did not mention the amount of
plutonium or enriched uranium it had produced,
Kyodo said.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in June
North Korea appeared to have reopened the
Yongbyon plant to produce plutonium from
spent fuel of a reactor central to its atomic
weapons drive.

North Korea vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear
facilities, including the main reactor at its
Yongbyon site that had been shut down.
North Korea had said in September that
Yongbyon was operating and that it was working
to improve the "quality and quantity" of its
nuclear weapons.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in
January.
According to Kyodo, the North Korean institute
said it had already succeeded in making "lighter
and diversifying" nuclear weapons, and that it
had no intention of halting nuclear tests.
"Under conditions that the United States
constantly threatens us with nuclear weapons,
we will not discontinue nuclear tests," the
institute was quoted by Kyodo as saying.
Little is known about the quantities of weapons-
grade uranium or plutonium that North Korea
possesses, or its ability to produce either,
though plutonium from spent fuel at Yongbyon
is widely believed to have been used in its
nuclear bombs.
North Korea has come under tightening
international pressure over its nuclear weapons
program, including tougher U.N. sanctions
adopted in March backed by its lone major ally
China.