Satellite images support North Korea reactor claim

Satellite images of activity at North Korea's main nuclear complex support Pyongyang's claims  it is constructing an experimental light water reactor in  defiance of global pressure to denuclearise, a US think tank says.

South Korean foreign minister Kim Sung-hwan said that by  building such a reactor, the North was violating UN  resolutions banning the secretive state from any nuclear activity.

Analysts say the construction of the new reactor, along  with reports of activity at a nuclear test site which have  fuelled speculation of a third atomic test, could be used as  leverage by the North at the negotiating table.

North Korea has said it wants to return to stalled  aid-for-disarmament talks, but both Seoul and Washington have dismissed its pledges to denuclearise as insincere.

Even though it has exploded nuclear devices, North Korea  has not shown it has a working nuclear bomb.

North Korea has tried to secure a light-water reactor for  a number of years, claiming such a project would be for  peaceful energy purposes. The type of reactor is considered  relatively proliferation-resistant, meaning it is unlikely to  be diverted for an arms programme.

Analysts are sceptical of North Korea's ability to build a  light-water reactor indigenously, because it requires key  components that only advanced nuclear states such as the United States can provide.

The Institute for Science and International Security reported that images taken on November 4 showed the frame of a  large building under construction at the Yongbyong site, saying this backed reports by experts that the North was  building a reactor.

Siegfried Hecker, a former chief of the Los Alomos  National Laboratory, and former US nuclear envoy Jack  Pritchard, have both visited the North this month and reported  that Pyongyang was building a 25-30 megawatt reactor.

"Dr Hecker informed ISIS that the new construction seen  in the satellite imagery is indeed the construction of the  experimental light water reactor," the Washington-based ISIS  said on its website.

South Korea's Kim rejected the North's claims that it has  the right to peaceful use of atomic energy, saying it is a  right only under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT).  North Korea quit the pact in 2003, just months after the  latest nuclear standoff began in late 2002.

North Korea froze its Yongbyon nuclear site under a 2005  deal with five regional powers in return for aid, but is  reported to have restarted activities there recently as the  six-way disarmament process remains stalled for two years.

A five-megawatt graphite-moderated reactor at Yongbyon has  produced arms-grade plutonium that officials and experts  believe the North used to build several nuclear bombs.

Hecker was quoted by Japan's Kyodo news agency as saying  the light water reactor would take several years to complete.

Pritchard - who met with the North's top nuclear envoy Kim Kye-gwan and Ri Gun, the North's deputy negotiator for the  stalled six-party talks - said he was told by an official  that the North wanted to complete the reactor by 2012.