photo; GuardianUK
The north Korean recent posture of war is bad news for the entire Korean peninsula and the surrounding territories.
But the bad news might have revealed something about the capabilities of the country: the only plutonium producing power plant was restarted today after 5 years.
If that is all that North Korea can produce, maybe they have not been able to enrich uranium as was once thought. Although North Korea has uranium ore available, at this point the move could signal that they are far from close from developing a uranium bomb.
That might also be the reason behind the secretive nuclear test conducted this week. It was so well concealed that it left no traces in the air for analysis by satellite and other instruments.
Although a plutonium bomb is nothing to sneeze at, it has not nearly the power of a uranium enriched bomb. And it might be telling the world that the much vaunted uranium bomb trial of 2010 might just have been a bluff.
And that's good news for other reasons too. If North Korea does not have enriched uranium, which is also much easier to conceal during transport, it is also incapable of giving it to its allies, such as Iran.
And since re-opening the plutonium plant which was destroyed to comply with the peace deal it signed at the time, is the harder the way to go if indeed it had the uranium capabilities, it can only signal that they are hard pressed to produce enriched plutonium because it is its only source or nuclear bomb material.
Source: WashPost 4.2.13
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