North Korea Vows to Restart Closed Nuclear Reactor

In a move many experts on the region view as diplomatic blackmail, North Korea vowed to restart its long dormant nuclear reactor "without delay" Tuesday to escalate the country's manufacturing of weapons materials.

Scientists have begun "readjusting and restarting" the North's nuclear facilities at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center that includes a plutonium reactor and a uranium enrichment plant, a spokesman for the nation's General Department of Atomic Energy announced via state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Both factories are capable of producing fuel for nuclear weaponry.

The closed reactor became operational in 1986 but was shuttered as a condition of international nuclear disarmament discussions in 2007, which have quite obviously ceased. Nuclear experts estimate that it could take Pyongyang between three months and one year to successfully reactivate the reactor.

Experts on the region say North Korea's continuous flood of threatening actions recently is meant to pressure the U.S. into "disarmament-for-aid" discussions and strengthen its people's devotion to new leader Kim Jong Un by showing he is a mighty "military commander."

North Korea is "is keeping tension and crisis alive to raise stakes ahead of possible future talks with the United States," Hwang Jihwan, a North Korea expert at the University of Seoul told Time.

"North Korea is asking the world, 'What are you going to do about this?'" he added.

China, North Korea's only major ally left, denounced the country's announcement, calling its decision to restart the nuclear reactor "regrettable." 

As many experts on the region often point out, while the exact nuclear capabilities of North Korea remain uncertain because of the nation's intense isolation, evidence suggests that Pyongyang is still many years away from developing nuclear missiles, and doesn't currently have the proper weaponry for pulling off such far off strikes. 

Pyongyang has made a point in recent months of displaying its military brawn through open threats aimed at the U.S. and South, provocative military exercises aimed at South Korean and U.S. targets, and more. North Korea has continued to ratchet up its aggressive rhetoric on a near-daily basis ever since its third nuclear test launch in February. 

North Korea announced Sunday that "nuclear armed forces [are] the nation's life" amid constantly rising tensions in the region. 

North Korea launched yet another series of verbal attacks Saturday declaring it had entered a "state of war" with the South, and threatening the U.S with nuclear war if it chose to continue provoking the isolated nation. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the state's military to set its missiles to "ready to strike" America and South Korea in order to "settle accounts with the U.S.," he announced Friday through KCNA.

KCNA also released a series of photos early Friday morning - one of which is the photo at the top of this article - showing Kim and his senior generals studying a set of plans for what look to be plans for an invasion of the U.S. According to NK News, that's almost certainly a "deliberate" move of intimidating propaganda by Pyongyang.

North Korea condemned U.S. stealth bomber missions over the South Thursday, calling the military terrorists, and threatening to destroy an American Air Force base in Guam. After the missions, North Korea claimed the bombers had its citizens "burning with hatred" for the U.S.

Earlier in the week, North Korea claimed it had cut a hotline with South Korea Wednesday and cautioned the United Nations that it was only a matter of time before violence erupted, saying the tensions had developed into a "simmering nuclear war."  After severing another hotline earlier in the month, North Korea cut yet another link between itself and the South, ceasing operations at Kaesong, and industrial complex ran by the countries together. The complex was the last symbolic remnant of cooperation between the two Koreas.

Faced with the endless flood of hostile behavior from Pyongyang, the U.S. and South Korea signed a new military contingency pact March 21 in preparation for future North Korean "provocations." 

The new joint plan addresses the possibility of a "limited attack" from North Korea, such as Pyongyang's sinking of the Choenan that left 46 sailors dead, and its shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in December 2010, Department of Defense officials said, according to the BBC.