North Korea is apparently moving spent nuclear fuel rods from a storage facility where they had been secured under international seal since 1994, the New York Times reported today.  The 8,000 rods contain enough plutonium to produce a half dozen nuclear weapons, according to U.S. officials (see GSN, Jan. 30).

Satellite imagery has shown trucks at the storage facility, but intelligence analysts have not determined precisely what was loaded onto the trucks.  The analysts have informally concluded that North Korea is moving the fuel rods to another storage sight or to a reprocessing plant to remove the plutonium, according to the Times.

“There’s still a debate about exactly what we are seeing and how provocative it is,” said a senior official.  “The North Koreans made no real effort to hide this from us,” the official added.

The White House has not distributed the satellite information widely and officials may be trying to avoid a crisis on the Korean peninsula, the Times said.

“The North Koreans, may be taking a fateful step,” according to Robert Einhorn, a nonproliferation official under former President Bill Clinton.

During that administration, U.S. officials developed plans to strike Yongbyon if diplomacy failed, according to the Times.  U.S. President George W. Bush has said the United States will not invade North Korea, but observers speculate the president might have used the word “invade” intentionally to leave open the option of an attack on specific facilities (Sanger/Schmitt, New York Times, Jan. 31).

Despite repeated confrontational official statements, the North Korean military has not made any aggressive movements recently, according to Pentagon officials.

Pyongyang has not mobilized its military and is even conducting fewer military exercises than usual, the Times reported (Matt Kelley, Associated Press/Kansas City Star, Jan. 31).

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