North Korea is about to operate a new nuclear reactor

North Korea said it would soon operate a new domestic nuclear reactor, a year after the country revealed its construction of the nuclear facility.

"A light-water reactor completely relies on domestic resources and techniques coming into operation in North Korea," AFP quoted a notice from the Korean national news agency KCNA. This information is presented in an article to protest against the US and South Korea's belief that the Korean economy is gradually breaking down.

Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility

Pyongyang has introduced a light-water reactor and uranium enrichment plant with US scientists visiting the Yongbyon nuclear complex on November 12, 2010.

Siegfried Hecker, one of the US scientists, said he and his colleagues visited the experimental light-water reactor with a capacity of 25-30 megawatt (LWR) in the first phase of construction. Mr. Hecker said in a report that the reactor is expected to operate in 2012 and that North Korea is too optimistic.

He also joined American scientists to visit a uranium enrichment plant (UEP) with 2,000 centrifuges to produce low-enriched fuel for the new reactor.

North Korea's nuclear program has long been subject to bitter opposition from Western countries. The US and its allies demanded Pyongyang close its uranium enrichment plant before resuming the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear issue. However, North Korea insists that negotiations must be unconditionally resumed.

The country's current plutonium is produced from a reactor in Yongbyon, which was closed in 2007 under a six-party agreement. However, the amount of plutonium is currently estimated to be enough to build six atomic bombs. In a 2010 report, Mr. Hecker said he found no evidence that Yongbyon was continuing to produce plutonium.