Kyodo: N. Korea Enriching Uranium at Yongbyon

South Korea and the United States have shared intelligence that North Korea is operating a plant to produce a small amount of highly enriched uranium at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, a Seoul daily reported Wednesday.

”Despite North Korean authorities’ denial of existence of the uranium enrichment program, South Korea and the U.S. share an intelligence North Korea is running a plant for uranium enrichment,” a high-ranking South Korean source reportedly told the Dong-a Ilbo. [Kyodo News]

That would certainly help explain why North Korea’s “disclosure” documents about its plutonium reprocessing contained traces of enriched uranium. Yet on another level, this would make no sense: they could enrich uranium in any one of a thousand underground sites in North Korea, so why do it at the one place that’s most likely to attract international attention? If the North Koreans really wanted to put their uranium program in a place safe from the prying eyes and questions of diplomats and journalists, they’d put it in here.