It Is Impossible to Build a Nuclear Power Plant in North Korea: Political Attacks Cross the Line

[경향신문]

People Power Party emergency committee chairman Kim Chong-in attends an emergency meeting to respond to alleged plans to construct a nuclear power plant in North Korea at the National Assembly on the afternoon of January 31. Yonhap News

The idea of building a nuclear power plant in North Korea is stirring controversy. The debate was triggered when news got out that the officials of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy discovered details on the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea among some deleted files, during an audit of Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1. The conservative opposition party attacked the government for “helping the enemy” saying, “The Moon Jae-in government tried to build a nuclear power plant in North Korea.” But the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea is realistically impossible unless the North Korean nuclear problem is resolved, so some experts argue that there is a political intention behind the opposition party’s allegations.

For a nuclear power plant to be constructed in North Korea, a number of conditions--not possible any time soon--have to be met. Since the “peaceful use of nuclear power” in North Korea must be permitted, the North Korean nuclear problem has to be resolved first. Building a nuclear power plant in North Korea is a problem at another level, and South Korea building a nuclear power plant for North Korea is even harder to imagine.

South Korea building a nuclear power plant in North Korea means that U.S. core technology on nuclear power and devices will be provided to North Korea. So first, a North Korea-U.S. nuclear power agreement, an agreement on cooperation for peaceful nuclear power, must be signed between the North and the U.S. This requires approval from the U.S. Congress. For this to be possible, North Korea must first return to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and become a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and receive regular inspections. This means a complete resolution of the North’s nuclear issue, and that all nuclear weapons and materials that the North already possesses have been removed. All this shows that the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea is an idea very distant from reality. China and Russia can sign a nuclear agreement with North Korea and provide nuclear reactors, but it is not likely for the two countries to take an action that will destroy the global non-proliferation regime.

At present, since the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea is a completely unrealistic idea, it is difficult to say that the government had any intention to promote it. There is no way that the opposition party did not know this, so the current attacks on the government can only be eyed with suspicion of a political intent. On January 31, the energy ministry said, “It was an internal document reviewed for ideas on cooperation in the field of energy,” and explained, “The conclusion of the document states, ‘With a lot of uncertainty due to the details and level of denuclearization measures between North Korea and the U.S., there is a limit to drawing up specific implementation plans, and it will require additional consideration after denuclearization measures have materialized in the future.’”

Even if an agreement is reached in negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear program, it is uncertain as to whether North Korea will demand nuclear reactors in exchange. In the initial stages of the negotiation with the U.S. North Korea denied allegations of developing nuclear weapons claiming it was developing a nuclear reactor to resolve the nation’s power shortage and asked for energy, such as crude oil, and the construction of light-water reactors in exchange for abandoning its nuclear program. Thus in 1994, the provision of a light-water reactor was included in the Geneva agreement between the North and the U.S. and the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) was launched.

In November 2010, North Korea announced plans to build a light-water reactor for tests. Nuclear experts say that North Korea is not likely to possess the technology to develop a light-water reactor on its own and argue that the North may have claimed to be building a light-water reactor to justify its activities to enrich uranium.