Chapter 3 -- An Overhead Tour: The Yongbyon Nuclear Site1
by David Albright and Corey Hinderstein
Figure III.7 A close up of the February 2000 Ikonos image showing the high-explosive (HE) test site that North Korea operated on the northern edge of the old nuclear site. Press reports in the early 1990s said that North Korea had conducted many explosive tests at this site. Visible at the HE site are several buildings, for which the purpose is unknown. North Korea told the IAEA that this area was for shaping metals with high explosives. The IAEA inspectors visited this site in September 1992. Although the IAEA determined that the site was non-nuclear, inspectors were not allowed to take environmental samples. Samples could have possibly revealed the presence of uranium, which may have indicated that North Korea had conducted high-explosive tests associated with nuclear weapons development. The site has been inactive since about 1991-1992.
