North Korea continues to expand nuclear operations, IAEA says

North Korea appears to be stillexpanding operations at its main nuclear site, the UN atomicwatchdog indicated on Thursday.

The statement by the head of the International Atomic EnergyAgency (IAEA)is a further sign that North Korea is pressing ahead withits atomic activities despite pressure from the United Statesfor it to scrap its nuclear weapons program.

At a summit in June, U.S. PresidentDonald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to worktoward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Since then, North Korea appears to have begun dismantling a pair of missile testing and launching facilities, according to areportpublished by North Korea analysis website 38 North in July. ButUN experts have warnedthe country has not moved toward the sort offull, irreversibledenuclearizationprogram Washington has called for.

At Yongbyon, North Korea's main nuclear facility that iswidely believed to have provided fissile material for its bombs,components appear to have been brought into a light-waterreactor being built there, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said.

"At the light-water reactor, the agency also observedactivities consistent with the fabrication of reactor componentsand the possible transfer of these components into the reactorbuilding," Amano said in a statement to the IAEA's board ofgovernors, reporting on the period since August.

No access for monitors since 2009

The IAEA has not had access to North Korea since 2009 andmainly monitors activities there through satellite imagery, meaning it cannot confirm its observations.

North Korea also appeared to have continued work at thenearby Kuryong River that it dammed last year to increase thesupply of water available for cooling the planned reactor or theexisting experimental one, which has an output capacity of fivemegawatts.

"Further activities were observed near the Kuryong River.These may be related to changes to the cooling infrastructurefor the five-megawattreactor and the light-water reactor," Amano said,adding that the experimental reactor was likely shut down whilesome of those unspecified activities were carried out.

Apart from an annual report on developments in North Korea,the IAEA does not normally comment on what it sees there,suggesting that Amano's comments were aimed at illustrating thecontinued activity at Yongbyon.