North Korea boasts of growing plutonium stock

North Korea boasted yesterday that its nuclear arsenal is being strengthened with plutonium extracted from 8,000 reprocessed fuel rods, and said it was ready to start an assembly line for atomic weapons.

If confirmed, the reprocessing would give Pyongyang enough for five or six warheads in addition to the one or two it is believed to possess. This would significantly expand its options to test, target and export nuclear bombs.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea successfully finished the reprocessing of some 8,000 spent fuel rods," a spokesman for the foreign ministry told the state-run KCNA news agency.

"The DPRK has made a switchover in the use of plutonium churned out by reprocessing spent fuel rods, in the direction of increasing its nuclear deterrent force."
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