Nuclear program of North Korea

North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) has developed its nuclear program (핵개발계획/核開發計劃) since 1950s when the United States deployed tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. Even though the United States withdrew all the nuclear weapons from South Korea under the denuclearization program, North Korea is widely believed to have developed its own nuclear weapons.

As the Pyongyang leaders conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 in defiance of international pressure to stop the nuclear program, the United Nations Security Council has adopted resolutions to impose economic and commercial sanctions.

Key words
nuclear program, nuclear weapon, light-water reactor, UN resolutions, economic sanctions

Nuclear Program
In 1958 the North Korean government asked the Soviet Union for help in developing nuclear weapons, but was refused. Instead, the Soviet Union agreed to help North Korea develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, including the training of nuclear scientists. The North Korean government consequently sought to increase its research capacity in fields such as nuclear physics, energy, and radiochemistry. The Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, the Nuclear Energy Research Institute, and the Radiological Institute were some of the organizations established during this period. In addition, a department of Nuclear Physics was opened at Pyongyang State University, and a nuclear reactor technology chair was opened at the Kimchaek Polytechnic University.

In the late 1960s, the North Korean government decided to accelerate the development of nuclear science and technology: new research institutes, laboratories and chairs were established nationwide. The initial goal of this decision was to create the basis for the development of a nuclear energy sector. At the fifth congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in 1970, and subsequently at the sixth congress in October 1980, delegates stressed the necessity of constructing "nuclear power plants on a large scale in order to sharply increase the generation of electrical power".

At the same time, the country's leadership took into account such factors as the absence of explored oil deposits in North Korea, and the impossibility of compensating for electric power shortages by means of hydroelectric and thermal energy power plants. Thus, plans were made for the development of a nuclear energy sector on the basis of gas-graphite reactors (which can be run on unenriched uranium), because the country possessed sufficient deposits of natural uranium, as well as substantial graphite deposits.

Light-Water Reactor development
During the 1980s, the North Korean government realized that light-water reactors (LWRs) were better suited to producing large amounts of electricity, for which there was a growing requirement. During the Kim Il Sung-Chernenko Moscow summit in 1984, the construction of nuclear power plants in North Korea with Soviet aid was first broached. The Soviet Union promised to assist North Korea with nuclear technology and materials on the condition that North Korea would sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In 1987 the Soviet Union began to conduct several feasibility studies to build three LWRs at Sinpo on North Korea's east coast.

Simultaneously, efforts were made to accelerate North Korea's general scientific and technological development, particularly in the nuclear field. The March 1988 Plenum of the Central Committee of the WPK made a decision to elaborate a Three-Year Plan (valid from 1988 to 1990) for the increased financing of science and technology, identifying four main directions: electronics, thermo-technology, chemistry and metallurgy.

After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia continued site selection fieldwork for the Sinpo LWR project. However, the North Koreans refused to pay for the work, and the project was effectively discontinued.

Denuclearization pledges
In 1994, North Korea signed the U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework with the United States. North Korea thereby agreed to end its graphite-moderated nuclear reactor program, including the construction of a 200 MWe power reactor at Taechon, in exchange for the construction of two 1000-MWe light-water reactors at Kumho. Construction of these was started in 2000 by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), but was suspended in November 2003. Under the Six-Party Talks held on September 19, 2005, North Korea pledged to end all its nuclear programs and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, submitting to international inspections in return for benefits including energy aid and normalization of relations with Japan and the United States.

An empty machine shop in the disabled fuel fabrication facility at Yongbyon. On June 25, 2008, it was announced that North Korea was to end its nuclear program; its nuclear declaration was to be handed over to China in Beijing on Thursday, June 26, 2008. The nuclear devices that North Korea already had, however, were to be handed over at a later date. North Korea stated that it had begun to dismantle its nuclear program and declared that it would turn over all of its plans. It destroyed the cooling tower for the 5 MWe reactor at Yongbyon on 27 June 2008.

Despite these apparent shutdown efforts, North Korea's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 have called into question its denuclearization commitment.

Nuclear fusion claims
In May 2010, North Korea's state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, announced in an article that North Korea had successfully carried out a nuclear fusion reaction. The aforementioned article, referring to the alleged test as "a great event that demonstrated the rapidly developing cutting-edge science and technology of the DPRK", also made mention of efforts by North Korean scientists to develop "safe and environment-friendly new energy", and made no mention of plans to use fusion technology in its nuclear weapons program.[12] The claim was greeted with skepticism, as fusion power has yet to be achieved by any other country, despite ongoing efforts such as the international ITER project.

Nuclear Tests
Eventually the nuclear technology base developed into a clandestine nuclear weapons program, leading to the 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. In 2009, it was estimated that North Korea had up to ten functional nuclear warheads. After the death of Kim Jong-il in December 2011, the IAEA announced its readiness to return nuclear inspectors to North Korea, from which they were expelled in 2009, as soon as an agreement could be reached on steps towards denuclearization. Nonetheless, in early 2013, North Korea pledged to conduct more nuclear tests in the near future.

Against all odds, Pyongyang regime attempted to demonstrate its technological capacity to deploy nuclear weapons. Right after the new United Nations resolution that expanded sanctions against its entities and individuals. Kim Jong-un gave a warning of a “higher-level nuclear test” third time in a row.

Amid the escalating tensions, the Ministry of National Defense of South Korea released a tunnel map of captured footage from the North’s official Korean Central Television. In September 2010, the state-owned television company showed footage of a control room for the second nuclear test in a documentary dubbed “The Country That I Saw.” The media said the room was used to control the second nuclear test, conducted on May 25, 2009. The South Korean officials analyzed the video and discovered a monitor in the assumed control room displaying a tunnel map.

Officials from the South think that the tunnel on the western side of the nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, in the northeastern part of the country, was where the second test was carried out. The tunnel is a one-kilometer (0.6-mile), one-way path, winding inwards and leading to the test pit. There are 10 gates in the path that are supposed to close, including the entrance, in order to block the hazardous radioactivity from the atomic test and absorb impact from the explosion. There are also three traps to collect debris. The pit at the end of the path is ground zero for the test. The 10 gates could possibly be made of strong steel or concrete to prevent radioactive emissions.