North Korea has apparently restarted a nuclear reactor in Yongbyon that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, a US think tank said late Wednesday, citing satellite imagery.

“North Korea now appears to have put the reactor into operation,” the Washington-based US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said on its website 38 North.

White smoke or steam was pictured coming from buildings near reactor hall on August 31, indicating that the reactor was being used to drive steam turbines, it said.

Seoul said it was monitoring developments.

“There is no smoke without fire,” Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok told journalists on Thursday. “Therefore, South Korea and US intelligence authorities are closely watching the issue.

“We urge North Korea to end the operation of their nuclear reactor,” he said, adding that Pyongyang “must allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect their site.” Pyongyang said in early April that it planned to restart the Yongbyon facilities, 90 kilometres north of the capital, which can produce up to six kilograms of plutonium per year according to 38 North.

North Korea closed Yongbyon in 2007 as part of six-nation talks in which it agreed to disarm in return for aid. It blew up the plant’s cooling tower the following year.

It has apparently found a way of operating without the tower by using another cooling system, 38 North said.

The facility is thought to have produced the plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

Its third test in February is thought to have used uranium, according to some experts.

Both uranium and plutonium can be used to produce nuclear weapons.

Enriching plutonium requires a nuclear reactor while uranium is enriched in centrifuges, which are easier to conceal from international monitors.

Pyongyang said in April that it would also be restarting a uranium-enrichment plant at Yongbyon, which it revealed in 2010.

Restarting Yongbyon would boost the electricity generation as well as the nuclear weapons programme, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said in April.

The impoverished nation has a limited power supply and suffers frequent power cuts.

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