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North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) has been active in developing nuclear technology since the 1950s. Although the country currently has no operational power-generating nuclear reactor, efforts at developing its nuclear power sector continue. Moreover, North Korea is widely believed to have developed nuclear weapons; it conducted what are widely accepted to have been nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2016.
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Early developments (1950s–1960s)
An IRT-2000 pool-type research reactor was supplied by the Soviet Union for the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center in 1963, and began operation in 1965. After upgrades to the research reactor, the fuels now used are IRT-2M-type assemblies of 36% and 80% highly enriched uranium. As the center has not received fresh fuel since Soviet times, this reactor is now only run occasionally to produce iodine-131 for thyroid cancer radiation therapy.
Expansion of the program (1960s–1990s)
During the 1970s the North Korean research became more independent. In 1974 North Korea upgraded its Soviet-supplied reactor to 8 MW, and in 1979 it began to build a second, indigenous research reactor in Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. Parallel to the construction of this reactor an ore processing plant and a fuel rod fabrication plant were built.
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.
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.
Institute of Atomic Energy
The Institute of Atomic Energy (IAE) in Pyongyang was founded in 1985, initially to house a 20 MeV cyclotron and laboratories imported under an IAEA technical cooperation program from the Soviet Union. The vast majority of cyclotron usage is to produce gallium-66 for liver and breast cancer treatment. The IAE has grown and now has three purposes: research, applying atomic energy to medicine and industry, and providing experimental facilities for nuclear studies students, particularly from Kim Il-sung University and Kim Chaek University of Technology.
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, but was suspended in November 2003. Under the Six-Party Talks held on 19 September 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.
On 25 June 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 26 June 2008. The nuclear devices that North Korea already had, however, were to be handed over at a later date. Earlier, on 23 June, North Korea stated that it had begun to dismantle its nuclear program and declared that it would turn over all of its plans to the international community.
In 2009, Siegfried Hecker, the co-director of the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation, said that "prior to its April rocket launch, North Korea had discharged approximately 6,100 of the 8,000 fuel rods from its 5-megawatt reactor to the cooling pool, but disablement slowed to a crawl of 15 fuel rods/week, dragging out the projected completion of fuel unloading well into 2011."
Despite these apparent shutdown efforts, North Korea's nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 have called into question its denuclearization commitment. In April 2013, amid rising tensions with the West, North Korea stated that it would restart the mothballed Yongbyon facility and resume production of weapons-grade plutonium.
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. The claim was greeted with skepticism, as sustainable fusion power has yet to be achieved by any other country, despite ongoing efforts such as the international ITER project.
Indigenous light water reactor development
In November 2010, a group of non-governmental U.S. experts reported that they had visited North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, where they were shown an experimental 25-to-30 MWe light water reactor in the early stages of construction, and a 2,000-gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant, which was said to be producing low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel for the reactor. Construction of the uranium enrichment plant reportedly began in April 2009, and the initial target date for operational commencement for the reactor was 2012. In November 2011, commercial satellite imagery indicated that construction of the reactor was progressing rapidly.
Nuclear weapons program
Following the 1958 U.S. deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, the North Korean government asked both the Soviet Union and China for help in developing nuclear weapons, but was refused by both. However, the Soviet Union agreed to help North Korea develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, including the training of nuclear scientists.
Eventually this 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, and its third nuclear test took place in February 2013.
Key nuclear organizations
The North Korean Institute of Physics was founded in 1952. The various departments originally created within the Institute of Physics later served as the basis for several independent research centers, including the Institute of Atomic Physics, the Institute of Semiconductors and the Institute of Mathematics. A further reorganization of scientific research activities was carried out in the 1970s, during which the majority of North Korea's nuclear research institutes were transferred from Pyongyang to the city of Pyonsong, 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the capital, and combined into a single scientific center.