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Senior U.S. State Department Official: North Korea Has Restarted Plutonium Fuel Production
A man watches a TV news program reporting about a missile launch of North Korea, at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 31, 2016. A North Korean missile launch likely failed on Tuesday, according to South Korea's military, the latest in a string of high-profile failures that tempers somewhat recent worries that Pyongyang was pushing quickly toward its goal of a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach America's mainland. The letters read on top left, "Fail, North Korea's Musudan missile." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Senior U.S. State Department Official: North Korea Has Restarted Plutonium Fuel Production

"Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern."

A senior official with the U.S. State Department reportedly told Reuters that North Korea has restarted plutonium fuel production, a sign that the reclusive East Asian county could be looking to reignite its nuclear weapons program.

The claim came on Tuesday months after international sanctions were tightened and just one day after the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that there are indications that North Korea reopened a plutonium production plant.

"As we do not have inspectors on the ground we are only observing through satellite imagery. We cannot say for sure," IAEA head Yukiya Amano said in an address to media. "But we have indications of certain activities through the satellite imagery."

Officials fear that North Korea could be stocking up in an effort to build nuclear warheads — a serious concern considering the nation's restrictive and reclusive nature. It's a situation that intelligence agencies are reportedly closely monitoring.

"Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern," the official said in an interview with Reuters. "They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process."

Considering that the IAEA has no staff on the ground in North Korea, the regime's potential nuclear activities are monitored by the U.N. watchdog via satellite.

Read more here.

(H/T: Reuters)

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Billy Hallowell

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Billy Hallowell

Billy Hallowell

Billy Hallowell is the director of communications and content for PureFlix.com, whose mission is to create God-honoring entertainment that strengthens the faith and values of individuals and families. He's a former senior editor at Faithwire.com and the former faith and culture editor at TheBlaze. He has contributed to FoxNews.com, The Washington Post, Human Events, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, and The Huffington Post, among other outlets. Visit his website (billyhallowell.com) for more of his work.

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