Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said Wednesday that North Korea appears to have reached a technological level to build uranium-based atomic bombs, which threatens regional peace and stability.

During a parliamentary interpellation session, the minister also said Pyongyang is thought to be currently “test-operating” its nuclear reactor in the Yongbyon complex rather than having resumed its full-scale operation.

“We are keeping close tabs on North Korean movements to find out whether they would restart full-fledged operations of the nuclear reactor,” Kim said during the session at the National Assembly.

His remarks came as signs have recently emerged that Pyongyang reactivated a nuclear reactor in the Yongbyon complex, which is capable of yielding enough plutonium to build one nuclear bomb a year.

Pointing out reasons for Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear arms, Kim said that the North seeks to get the upper hand in future negotiations with the outside world, secure a nuclear-power status, consolidate its domestic leadership and be more competitive in the inter-Korean rivalry.

Despite a host of international sanctions that have made the North one of the world’s most isolated states, Pyongyang has continued its nuclear adventurism with a series of underground nuclear tests including the most recent one in February.

Pyongyang has recently made a flurry of diplomatic efforts to resume the long-stalled multilateral talks on its denuclearization. But such efforts have been dismissed as “insincere” by Seoul and Washington, the core participants in the six-party talks that also involve China, Russia and Japan.

The North has already presented its unwillingness to forge nuclear arms. It has declared itself as a nuclear power in its constitution and adopted a policy of concurrently pursuing nuclear armament and economic development.

The North is believed to have accumulated some 40 kg of plutonium after it reprocessed spent fuel rods at least three times, in 2003, 2005 and 2009. Around 6 kg of plutonium is required to produce one nuclear bomb.

Regarding the North’s uranium enrichment program, Pyongyang has claimed to have some 2,000 operational centrifuges capable of producing some 40 kg of highly enriched uranium each year. To produce one HEU bomb, more than 15 kg of HEU is required.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)