INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightMODAfter the US-North Korea summit talks in Hanoi ended abruptly, President Donald Trump said his stumbling block with Kim
Jong-un was over one key point: What North Korea would get in exchange for disabling its Yongbyon nuclear facility
Yongbyon is the site that produces material that could be used in North Korea's nuclear weapons
Long ahead of the Hanoi talks, rumours have swirled that Pyongyang could offer to shut Yongbyon, or parts of it, in exchange for sanctions
relief.Melissa Hanham, defence expert at One Earth Future, explains the notorious site which is the heart of North Korea's nuclear
The Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre is a sprawling campus that primarily serves a military mission - producing fissile material
for North Korea's nuclear weapons
Its construction began in 1961, after North Korea reached two nuclear agreements with the Soviet Union
The Kuryong River runs through the campus, and its water is used to cool the adjacent reactors
Some parts of the site hold administrative and scientific support facilities - but it's the reactors and other assets which the US
eventually hopes to see dismantled
They include the following.'Just a few grams boosts a warhead'The IRT-2000 reactor is the smallest and oldest reactor at Yongbyon
It was finished in 1965 under the supervision of the Soviet Union and originally used low-enriched uranium for scientific purposes and to
Until 1973, the Soviet Union provided the fuel rods to run the reactor, but North Korea later converted the reactor to highly-enriched
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Pyongyang claims it can already put nukes on missiles
While
this reactor cannot produce much fissile material for North Korea, there is some concern that it could produce isotopes like tritium or
lithium deuteride using the nearby isotope production laboratory
Just a few grams of tritium can be used in a warhead to boost its efficiency, thereby allowing for a smaller and lighter design for a
'Two attempts failed to shut it down'The five megawatt reactor is the most famous reactor in the campus
It was built using illicitly procured designs for the UK's Calder Hall reactor, and completed in 1986
This reactor produced the bulk of the plutonium for North Korea's weapons, and was at the centre of several diplomatic confrontations and
Today, it is capable of operation using water from the nearby Kuryong River
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has had occasional access to the reactor, depending on North Korea's willingness to allow
inspectors in.There have been two previous attempts to "shut down" the reactor - both later reversed by North Korea when relations soured
'No outsiders have visited'In September 2010, satellite imagery revealed the beginnings of large new structure south of the 5 MW Reactor
While it was not initially apparent what the structure was, a party of visiting US scientists was told that it was to be an experimental
light water reactor intended for electricity production in 2010
Today, the reactor appears complete externally but is yet to show concrete evidence of operation
No outsiders have visited since its completion
'A radiochemical laboratory'This facility is really a plutonium reprocessing facility used to transform spent fuel rods from the reactors
into weapons-useable material
North Korea originally told the IAEA that the facility was training nuclear scientists, however the IAEA concluded it was really for
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The North sees its nuclear capabilities as key to military deterrence
The outsized facility was designed to handle plutonium from both the 5 MW reactor and the nearby 50 MW reactor which was abandoned
Satellite imagery shows vehicle activity and construction around the site
However, reprocessing facilities have few signatures that show outsiders when they're operating, or how much plutonium is reprocessed.'Its
floor-space has doubled' In 2010 North Korea revealed that it had converted its Fuel Fabrication Facility into a uranium enrichment facility
Scientists that visited the site estimated that the building contained nearly 2,000 centrifuges
Construction in 2013 doubled the floor space of the facility, but it is unknown whether the number of centrifuges also doubled
The US suspected that North Korea was operating a secret uranium enrichment program fuelled by Pakistani AQ Khan's illicit network for
Other sites outside of YongbyonWhile Yongbyon is the only facility that North Korea has declared, it is widely believed that there are at
In 2018, open-source research identified a probable site near Kangson, North Korea
A deal to shut down Yongbyon - or parts of it - would not apply to other enrichment facilities in the country.These facilities are extremely
hard to detect and can be hidden easily
Iran chose to build its enrichment facilities underground and in a mountain.It is unlikely that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons
However, if measures are taken to verifiably monitor or even irreversibly dismantle these facilities at Yongbyon, it would mean North Korea
is no longer able to produce plutonium or tritium for its nuclear weapons program
Uranium would still be of concern, as only one of the suspected uranium enrichment facilities is at Yongbyon
Nonetheless, this would represent a significant cap to Pyongyang's ability to make additional nuclear warheads
