North Korea is boosting nuclear weapons capacity: IAEA chief

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi warns of significant expansion in North Korea's nuclear capabilities, citing new reactor operations and facility activations. | Contesto: cronaca

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• North Korea is boosting nuclear weapons capacity: IAEA chief

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The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog has issued a stark assessment that North Korea is actively expanding its nuclear weapons capacity, with its arsenal now estimated to consist of a few dozen warheads. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi delivered the statement at a news conference in Vienna, pointing to concrete signs of activity, including the operation of a light water reactor and the activation of facilities beyond the country's main known nuclear complex at Yongbyon. The announcement marks one of the most direct and quantified public warnings from the agency in recent years regarding the pace and scale of Pyongyang's prohibited weapons program. The core of the IAEA's concern centers on observable developments at nuclear sites that the agency monitors from afar, as its inspectors have been barred from the country since 2009. Grossi specifically cited the operation of a light-water reactor (LWR) at the Yongbyon complex. While such reactors can be used for civilian power generation, in North Korea's context, experts have long warned that the LWR could provide a separate source of plutonium for weapons, supplementing the existing plutonium production from Yongbyon's older graphite-moderated reactor. Perhaps more alarmingly, Grossi noted the activation of other, unspecified facilities outside of Yongbyon, suggesting a deliberate effort to decentralize and harden the nuclear infrastructure against potential disruption. This expansion occurs against a backdrop of prolonged diplomatic stalemate. Denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea have been effectively frozen since the collapse of the 2019 Hanoi summit between then-President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In the intervening years, Pyongyang has not only continued but accelerated its weapons testing, including launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) theoretically capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. The IAEA's latest assessment underscores that the program's growth is not merely rhetorical or demonstrative but involves the sustained, physical infrastructure work required for long-term arsenal...

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Categoria: cronaca