Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – A U.S. scientist has revealed North Korea’s newly-built uranium enrichment plant claiming he saw it during a visit last week to the communist country.

Siegfried Hecker of Stanford University said the facility at the Yongbyon nuclear complex outside the capital Pyongyang has 2,000 centrifuges made locally and modeled after Dutch and Japanese centrifuges, which produce low-grade enriched uranium to fuel a nuclear reactor.

Hecker said North Korean officials told him the plant was built in April 2009, when the country quit the nuclear disarmament talks with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The North Koreans claimed the plant produces electricity.

However, the American scientist said he did not know if the facility was operational.

The revival of Pyongyang’s nuclear program comes as the six-country nuclear disarmament talks are to resume. Analysts say the facility will give North Korea a bargaining chip in the talks.

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