North Korea begins plutonium harvesting

Published on Saturday 25 April 2009 20:00

Rogue state North Korea has restarted its nuclear facilities to harvest plutonium for atomic weapons, the regime said yesterday, just hours after the UN imposed new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent rocket launch.

Though it could take months before the facility is fully operational, the move is a key step away from a 2007 disarmament deal – signed months after North Korea conducted a nuclear test.

"The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant has begun," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.