Analysts pointed out that despite North Korea’s defiant vow to restart its Yongbyon nuclear plant, its capacity to add to its small nuclear arsenal is limited by aging technology as well as by machinery that was disabled as part of a disarmament deal. Reports noted that by using fuel rods currently in storage, Pyongyang could process enough plutonium for one nuclear weapon within the next six months. It would however take 6 to 12 months to restart all facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear plant, and its capacity to produce plutonium is limited to about one bomb's worth of material a year, according to Siegfried S. Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory1.

• 1. Blaine Harden, “N. Korea's Defiant Tone Masks Problems Restarting Nuclear Program,” The Washington Post, April 15, 2009, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR200904...