Location: Kŭmho-chigu (琴湖地區), Shinp’o (新浦市), South Hamgyŏng Province (咸鏡南道), North Korea

Subordinate to: General Department of Atomic Energy (原子力總局), Cabinet (內閣)

Size: Two 1,000MW(e) light water power reactors

Main Function: Production of electricity

Description: In exchange for North Korea’s signing the NPT in 1985, the USSR agreed to provide four light water nuclear reactors to be built at this site. The agreement, signed in December 1985, stipulated that Moscow would provide technical assistance in the construction of four VVER-440, each with a rating of 440MW(e), or a total of 1,760MW(e). The site in Shinpo had been selected by February 1990 and some preliminary site preparation was done before the USSR cancelled the project in 1991. Originally, the Soviet Union was scheduled to transfer the technical design of the VVER-440 reactor to North Korea by 1994. After the project was cancelled, North Korea decided to pursue indigenous development and design to construct three 635MW(e) light-water reactors at the site. This plan was cancelled once the KEDO light water reactor project began under the terms of the Agreed Framework. In March 1995, the Agreed Framework provided for the establishment of the KEDO consortium, which was created to supply North Korea with two 1,000MW(e) light water power reactors in exchange for Pyongyangs commitment to freeze its other nuclear facilities and nuclear weapons program and to permit the IAEA to verify the completeness and correctness of North Koreas initial declaration. Furthermore, the agreement stipulates that North Korea must uphold its safeguards commitments and remain a signatory to the NPT.

In June 1995, North Korea conceded KEDOs right to select a reactor design and contractors. Pyongyang was initially opposed, but KEDO selected the South Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plant, which is based upon a US design. KEDO then chose the (South) Korean Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) as the main contractor. Site grading began in July 1997, and concrete for the first reactor bed was poured in August 2002. The Agreed Framework set 2003 as a target date for the completion of the first reactor, but delays have pushed back the expected completion date to 2007-2009. The construction project was approaching a crucial stage in late 2002 because North Korea is required to fulfill all of its safeguards obligations before critical reactor components can be delivered. Most analysts estimate that it will take the IAEA two to three years, and possibly up to four years, to complete inspections that were suspended in 1993. Under the current construction schedule, critical reactor components will be ready for installment in 2005. Therefore, safeguards inspections would have to begin very soon in order to avoid a halt in the project and the withdrawal of construction personnel at the Kŭmho-chigu site.

In late 2002, a series of events indicated that KEDO might never complete construction of the reactors. During the summer of 2002, US intelligence concluded that North Korea had been acquiring materials and technologies as part of a development program to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU), which is in violation of the Agreed Framework and Pyongyangs safeguards commitments. In November 2002, KEDOs Executive Board voted to suspend heavy fuel oil (HFO) shipments to North Korea, prompting Pyongyang to claim that the suspension of HFO shipments in December 2002 had caused the total collapse of the Agreed Framework. On 12 December 2002, North Korea announced that it was lifting the freeze on its nuclear facilities, and on the same day, Pyongyang asked the IAEA to remove the seals, cameras, and all monitoring devices from its nuclear facilities.

	Updated April 2003

Key Sources:
Interview with Dr. Shin Sŏng T’aek, chief of the Force Development Research Team, Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, by CNS senior research associate Daniel A. Pinkston and CNS research associate Mari Sudo, 4 September 2002, Monterey; ROK Ministry of National Defense, Taeryangsalsangmugi (WMD) Mundappaekkwa:Hwa Saeng Pang Missile Ŏlmana Algo Kyeshimnikka? (Seoul: Ministry of National Defense, 2001), pp. 114-116; Kim Pyŏng Ku, et al., Pukhaekkisulch’ongsŏ-I (Taejŏn: Technology Center for Nuclear Control, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, November 1999), <http://www.tcnc.kaeri.re.kr/>; Agreement on Supply of a Light-Water Reactor Project to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea between the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization and the Government of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, 15 December 1995, <http://www.kedo.org/pdfs/SupplyAgreement.pdf>; KEDO Executive Board Meeting Concludes - November 14, 2002,” KEDO, 14 November 2002, <http://www.kedo.org/>; “IAEA Director General Calls for DPRK Restraint,” WorldAtom Press Release PR 2002/21, December 12, 2002,
<http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Press/P_release/2002/prn0221.shtml>; “Operation and Building of Nuclear Facilities to Be Resumed Immediately,” Korean Central News Agency, December 12, 2002, <http://www.kcna.co.jp>; “DPRK Gov’t to Immediately Resume Operation and Constr. [sic] of Its Nuclear Facilities,” Korean Central News Agency, December 12, 2002, <http://www.kcna.co.jp>; “Haekshisoltul'ui Kadonggwa Konsol’ul Chukshi Chaegae,” Korean Central News Agency, December 12, 2002, <http://www.kcna.co.jp/>; Ch’oe Ŭi Sŏk, “So, Pukhan Wŏnjŏn’gŏnsŏl Chiwŏn/Kerashimo’p’ŭ Taebyŏn’in,” Segye Ilbo, 3 March 1990, p. 6, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr/>; “So, Pukhan Wŏnjŏn Kŏnsŏl Chiwŏn,” Kyunghyang Shinmun, 2 March 1990, p. 2, in KINDS, <http://www.kinds.or.kr/>; Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., North Korea’s Nuclear Infrastructure,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, February 1994, p. 77; Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., “Exposing North Korea’s Nuclear Infrastructure—Part One,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, July 1999, p. 40; So Yong-ha, “Capacity for Nuclear Weapons Development,” Hoguk, July 1989, pp. 119-122, in “North’s Nuclear Capability Assessed,” FBIS-EAS-89-148, 3 August 1989, pp. 23-26; Ch'oe Son-yong, “North Korea Established Districts [chigu] as Administrative Districts Since 1995,” Yonhap News Agency, 20 March 2002, in “DPRK Reportedly Establishes New Administrative Districts from 1995,” FBIS Document ID: KPP20020320000049.