N. Korea could have up to 2 tons highly enriched uranium
The 2,000 kilos would be enough to build 47 nuclear bombs.
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Daily TribuneThe 2,000 kilos would be enough to build 47 nuclear bombs.
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Photo courtesy of KNS/AFP
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is believed to possess up to two tons of highly enriched uranium, South Korea’s unification minister said Thursday.
The North has long been known to hold a “significant” amount of highly enriched uranium, the key material used to produce nuclear warheads, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.
But in a rare public confirmation, South Korea’s unification minister said that “according to estimates by experts including the Federation of American Scientists’ they (North Korea) currently hold around 2,000 kilograms (kgs) of highly enriched uranium at a purity of 90 percent or higher.”
“Even at this very hour, North Korea’s uranium centrifuges are operating at four sites,” Chung Dong-young told reporters.
“Only five to six kg of plutonium is enough to build a single nuclear bomb,” said Chung, adding that 2,000 kgs of highly enriched uranium, which could be reserved solely for plutonium production, would be “enough to make an enormous number of nuclear weapons.”
Enriched uranium is the key ingredient for making nuclear bombs, as it can be turned into plutonium through combustion in a nuclear reactor.
Enrichment must be pushed to more than 90 percent, the concentration termed weapons-grade, that is needed for the critical mass to set off the chain reaction leading to a nuclear explosion.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, 42 kgs of highly enriched uranium is needed for one nuclear weapon; 2,000 kgs would be enough for roughly 47 nuclear bombs.
