The U.S. evaluation came a day after the U.N. atomic guard dog said it had "signs" that Pyongyang has reactivated a plant to recuperate plutonium from spent reactor fuel at Yongbyon, its principle atomic complex.
The most recent improvements propose North Korea's withdrawn administration is attempting to guarantee an enduring supply of materials for its drive to manufacture warheads, in spite of fixed worldwide authorizations after its fourth atomic test in January.
The U.S. official, who talked on state of namelessness, said that Washington is concerned by the new plutonium reprocessing exertion, however he offered no unequivocal word on any U.S. reaction.
"Everything in North Korea is a reason for concern," the authority told Reuters.
"They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and afterward take it to the reprocessing office, and that is the place they've acquired the plutonium for their past atomic tests. So they are rehashing that procedure," the authority said. "That is what they're doing."
North Korea, which directed its fourth atomic test in January, promised in 2013 to restart all atomic offices, including the primary power source and the littler plant at Yongbyon, which was closed down in 2007 as a feature of a global demilitarization for-help bargain that later given way.
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| North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the construction site of Ryongaksan soap factory in this undated photo |
IAEA boss Yukiya Amano told a news meeting in Vienna on Monday that there have been signs of restored plutonium reprocessing exercises at Yongbyon. Reprocessing includes separating plutonium from spent reactor fuel, one course to getting bomb fuel other than uranium enhancement.
"I would concur that there are signs," the U.S. official said.
The authority declined to affirm whether this determination was produced using satellite symbolism or insight sources, or to say the amount of plutonium North Korea could deliver by this strategy.
South Korea's Unification Ministry representative Cheong Joon-hee said Seoul was nearly watching developments identified with the North's atomic office "with grave concern" yet declined to remark specifically on plutonium generation.
A representative for China's Foreign Ministry said China, North Korea's solitary real partner, has dependably advanced the denuclearization of the Korean promontory and a determination of the issue by means of talks.
"We trust all gatherings can buckle down together to put the atomic issue back on the track of exchange and transactions," representative Hong Lei told correspondents.
Covered IN SECRECY
North Korea reported at an uncommon congress of its governing Workers' Party a month ago that it would fortify its guarded atomic weapons capacity.
It had officially announced itself "a mindful atomic weapons state" and repudiated the utilization of atomic weapons unless its sway is initially encroached by others with atomic arms.
While North Korea in the past has frequently acquired key segments for its atomic project from different nations notwithstanding worldwide authorizations, there was no indication of any later outside obtainment required in reactivating its plutonium reprocessing, the U.S. official said.
There is minimal demonstrated information about the amounts of weapons-evaluation uranium or plutonium that North Korea has, or its capacity to deliver either, however plutonium from spent fuel at Yongbyon is broadly accepted to have been utilized as a part of its atomic bombs.
South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said a month ago the North presumably had around 40 kg (88 lb) of plutonium. That would be sufficient to make eight to 10 bombs, as per specialists.
Working the 5 megawatt reactor could yield around 5-6 kg of plutonium a year, they said.
Specialists at the U.S.- Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington anticipated a year ago that North Korea's atomic weapons stockpile could develop to 20, 50 or 100 bombs inside five years, from an expected 10 to 16 weapons around then.
North Korea has gone under fixing universal weight over its atomic weapons program, including harder U.N. sanctions embraced in March upheld by China, taking after its latest atomic impact and ballistic rocket tests.
The site 38 North reported a week ago, in light of business satellite symbolism, that fumes crest had been identified twice in May from the warm plant at Yongbyon's Radiochemical Laboratory, the site's primary reprocessing establishment.
The Institute for Science and International Security likewise reported fumes emanations from a fireplace at the plant, which it said was frequently connected with reprocessing exercises there.
(Extra reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by James Dalgleish and Nick Macfie)
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