BUILDUP

North Korea to Restart Nuke Reactor

Has been closed since 2007.

Another day, another threat by North Korea. The country announced on Tuesday that it would be restarting a nuclear reactor that has been dormant since 2007, although it’s unclear how long it would take to get the reactor going again, since its cooling tower was destroyed. The announcement comes after a speech by Kim Jong-un was published on Sunday, which pulled back from the tough rhetoric of the past few weeks and instead called for nuclear weapons to be used only as a “deterrent.” But the restarted nuclear power plant could increase production of plutonium for nuclear weapons, and comes weeks after North Korea completed its third nuclear test in February.