North Korea has been refurbishing a major uranium mill, an indication the communist regime is preparing to increase uranium production to either expand its nuclear arsenal or produce fuel for light water reactors, a U.S. expert said Wednesday.
  

Jeffrey Lewis, a nonproliferation expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said in an article on the website 38 North that the Pyongsan Uranium Concentration Plant in southern North Korea has been undergoing "significant refurbishment."
  

"Since 2013, most of the buildings have received new roofs. The terminus of the conveyor belt was demolished and rebuilt. Other buildings appear to have been gutted and are now in the process of being rebuilt with new roofing," he said in the article, citing recent commercial satellite imagery.
  

"The significant investment in refurbishing the mill suggests that North Korea is expecting to process significant amounts of uranium, either from the Pyongsan mine or other uranium mines," he said.
  

The question is what the North will do with the uranium, the expert said.
  

"One possibility is that North Korea will enrich the uranium to expand its stockpile of nuclear weapons. Another is that Pyongyang plans to produce fuel for the Experimental Light Water Reactor under construction at its Yongbon nuclear scientific research facility, as well as future light-water reactors based on that model," he said.
  

In 2010, North Korea revealed that it was running a uranium enrichment facility, adding to international concerns about its nuclear capabilities. Uranium, if highly enriched, can be used to make weapons, prodiving Pyongyang with a second way of building atomic bombs, in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.
  

The North could use its uranium enrichment facility to make low-enriched uranium as fuel for a light water reactor under construction at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. The North can make weapons-grade plutonium out of spent fuel from the light water reactor. (Yonhap)