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1 (May 12, 2005)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthabbml0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21391 Updated May 12, 2005 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: How Soon an Arsenal? Sharon A. Squassoni Specialist in National Defense Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division Summary In December 2002, North Korea ended the eight-year freeze on its nuclear program by expelling international inspectors and restarting plutonium production facilities. In 2005, North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons and that it would withdraw from the Six Party talks, shut down its small reactor, and made preparations that some observers believe may be for a nuclear test. Before 2002, the CIA estimated that North Korea might have enough plutonium (Pu) for 1 or 2 weapons. Now, many assume that North Korea has successfully reprocessed the 8000 spent fuel rods at Yongbyon, which had previously been under seal, yielding enough Pu for 6 or 8 weapons. The Yongbyon reactor is estimated to produce plutonium for one weapon per year. Two unknown factors are the status of North Korea's uranium enrichment efforts and whether Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan gave North Korea a weapons design, as he did to Libya. This report will be updated as needed. Background In the earlyl980s, U.S. satellites tracked a growing indigenous nuclear program in North Korea. A small nuclear reactor at Yongbyon (5MWe), capable of producing about 6kg of plutonium per year, began operating in 1986.1 Later that year, U.S. satellites detected high explosives testing and a new plant to separate plutonium (a necessary step before turning the plutonium into metal for a warhead). In addition, the construction of two larger reactors (50MWe at Yongbyon and 200MWe at Taechon) added to the mounting evidence of a serious clandestine effort. Although North Korea had joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1985, safeguards inspections began only in 1992. Those inspections raised questions about how much plutonium North Korea had produced covertly that still have not been resolved. In 1994, North Korea pledged, under the Agreed Framework with the United States, to freeze its plutonium programs and Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress 1 5MWe is a power rating for the reactor, indicating that it produces 5 million watts of electricity per day (very small). Reactors are also described in terms of million watts of heat (MW thermal).

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