news worldnews asia northkorea 8149865 ----- # North Korea has built sophisticated uranium enrichment facility, US scientist says ## North Korea has built a new sophisticated facility to enrich uranium, according to a leading American nuclear scientist. ![Nuclear complex at Yongbyon][1] Image 1 of 2 Two satellite images of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, the one on the left taken Sept. 29, 2010, the other Nov. 18, the lattter shows a rectangular structure being built, with at least two cranes visible at the complex Photo: AP ![Doctor Siegfried Hecker][2] Image 1 of 2 'Instead of seeing a few small cascades of centrifuges, which I believed to exist in North Korea, we saw a modern, clean centrifuge plant of more than a thousand centrifuges, all neatly aligned and plumbed below us,' wrote Prof Hecker Photo: AP [![Alex Spillius][3]][4] By [Alex Spillius][5], Washington 7:12PM GMT 21 Nov 2010 [Follow Alex Spillius on Twitter][6] The news raises fears that the secretive regime is capable of expanding its atomic programme despite years of international pressure. Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, returned last week from a visit to the Yongbyon complex, where he was shown a small-scale industrial uranium enrichment facility that was "astonishingly modern" and would "would fit into any modern American processing facility". [**North Korean**][7] officials told him the plant contained 2,000 centrifuges designed to manufacture uranium for civilian nuclear power, though he concluded the centrifuges "could be readily converted to produce highly enriched uranium bomb fuel". "Instead of seeing a few small cascades of centrifuges, which I believed to exist in North Korea, we saw a modern, clean centrifuge plant of more than a thousand centrifuges, all neatly aligned and plumbed below us," wrote Prof Hecker in a report posted on the website of Stanford University, where he works. It was the fourth visit Prof Hecker had made to Yongbyon since 2004. The North Koreans appear to have invited him and two Stanford colleagues in order to send a message to Washington that they are seeking more concessions as a condition of resuming of nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks, which the North abandoned in April 2009. ## Related Articles * [Inside North Korea - exclusive][8] 28 Nov 2010 * [North Korea building new reactor][9] 19 Nov 2010 * [North Korea 'runs international nuclear smuggling network'][10] 12 Nov 2010 The revelation could also have been designed to strengthen the North Korean government as it looks to transfer power from leader Kim Jong-il to his son Kim Jong-un. The report came as Stephen Bosworth, the top US envoy for North Korea, was due to arrive in Asia yesterday [Sun] for talks with regional leaders on kick- starting the stalled six-party nuclear talks. Adm Mike Mullen, the Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pyongyang of "belligerent behaviour". "From my perspective, it's North Korea continuing on a path which is destabilising for the region," the top US military official, told CNN. "It confirms or validates the concern we've had for years about their enriching uranium which they've denied routinely and that when I look at this, it is consistent with belligerent behaviour, and the kind of instability creation in a part of the world that is very dangerous," he added. North Korea, despite continued grave economic problems, staged its second nuclear test last year. But in recent months it has expressed conditional willingness to return to dialogue. Uranium enrichment would give the North a second way to make atom bombs, in addition to its known plutonium-based programme. At low levels, uranium can be used in power reactors, but at higher levels it can be used in nuclear bombs. [X][11] Share & bookmark Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz [What are these?][12] * Share: [Share][11] [ ][13] [ ][14] [Tweet][15] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8149865/North-Korea- has-built-sophisticated-uranium-enrichment-facility-US-scientist-says.html Telegraph ## [North Korea][16] * ### [News »][17] * ### [World News »][18] * ### [Asia »][19] * ### [Alex Spillius »][4] In news [![One of North Korea's Kim Jong-il's palatial mansions from Google Earth][20] ][21] ### [North Korea from above][21] [![Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Un][22] ][23] ### [Keeping it in the family][23] [![South Korea holds large live-fire drills ][24] ][25] ### [South Korea holds large live-fire drills][25] [![Soldiers from a South Korean army armoured division take part in an annual river-crossing exercise against a possible attack from North Korea on the Han river in Yeoju][26] ][27] ### [Timeline: North Korea's conflict with the South][27] [![A growing group of North Korean dissidents are risking their lives to secretly film inside the repressive regime before smuggling the tapes across the Chinese border to show the outside world what is happening to their countrymen. ][28] ][8] ### [Inside North Korea - exclusive][8] [X][11] Share & bookmark Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! 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