North Korea has resumed construction of a nuclear reactor that can be used to expand the country’s nuclear weapons program, an American-based institute said Thursday, citing the latest satellite imagery of the building site.

In November, North Korea reported brisk progress in the building of a small light water reactor in its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, its capital. If completed and operational, the plant would give North Korea a new source of spent nuclear fuel from which plutonium, a fuel for nuclear weapons, can be extracted.

North Korea has resumed construction work on an experimental light water reactor (ELWR) in a move that could extend its capacity to produce more material for nuclear weapons, website 38North reported on Thursday.

Based on April 30 satellite images, work halted in December at the reactor had now re-started, said the website (38north.org), run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University and former U.S. State Department official Joel Wit.

North Korea said on Tuesday that it had completed preparations to launch a satellite into orbit, as South Korea and other Asian nations told their airlines and ships to change their routes to avoid the North Korean rocket.

For anyone interested in nuclear politics, Asia has been the focus from the beginning: since the time of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Everyone sat up and took notice of the power of the atom. Since then, there has been a mad scramble to harness it. And, almost always, countries have claimed that their nuclear programme was mainly for peaceful purposes.

The reason for the nuclear renaissance in Europe was the heavy dependence on Russian gas. But for Asia, power was not really the reason for going nuclear.

The average life expectancy of people in the South and South-East Asia will rise to 75 years in less than 40 years, WHO said Monday, insisting the number of aged people over 60 years will triple by 2050 from its current figure of 142 million.
‘Approximately 142 million people or 8 per cent of the population of WHO’s South-East Asia Region are (now) above the age of 60 years. The number of aged people will be doubled by 2025 and tripled by 2050 compared to 2000,’ said a release of the New Delhi-based South-East Asia Regional Office of the World Health Organisation.

North Korea gave details for the first time of a "weather satellite" it plans to send into orbit next month, a launch the West sees as a disguised ballistic missile test which has prompted criticism from the reclusive state's only major ally, China.

The North's KCNA news agency described it as an "advanced geostationary meteorological satellite data receiver" as world leaders gathered in the South Korean capital, Seoul, for a nuclear security summit.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has appealed to eight countries, including India, to ratify the CTBT to bring the global nuclear test ban into force.

The UN Secretary-General made the appeal after Indonesia became the 157th country to adopt the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Besides India, China, North Korea, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the US are the other nations in a core group of 44 nuclear countries which did not ratify the treaty.

The 44 nations, which must ratify the CTBT to bring it into force, all have nuclear weapons or atomic programmes.

Civil nuclear cooperation will be among the major issues of discussion at the summit meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda here on Wednesday during which the two sides will also look at ways to enhance trade.

Shanghai claimed this year to be the world’s busiest container handling port. One tradable it doesn’t want mixed into the throughput figures: nuclear and radioactive items.

In a joint U.S.-China non-proliferation initiative, officials next week are scheduled to commission and demonstrate a radiation detection system at Shanghai’s flagship Yangshan port, according to a brief statement distributed Friday by the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai.

“This U.S.-Chinese effort is the first project of its kind in China,” the statement said.

State-run mining giant NMDC Ltd has dropped a proposal to acquire the Erchim Tkhan — popularly known as Vinci Coal — project in Russia. Reason: one of the owners of Vinci Coal is based in North Korea, a country under heavy US sanctions.
The Rs 11,369-crore Maharatna company had last year opened talks with the owners of Vinci to acquire 100 per cent stake in the project. On October 10 this year, NMDC signed a non-disclosure agreement with one of its three owners, the Russian EN+ Coal Ltd.