Citing reports by the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, the Mainichi daily said no rods were left in a North Korean spent fuel pool, suggesting they have all been processed to obtain plutonium. But the rods could also have been moved to a new site, the paper said.
An IAEA delegation, led by Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen, last week visited the Yongbyon nuclear reactor for the first time since the agency inspectors were expelled from the country five years ago.
North Korean authorities have agreed to shut down the nuclear research facility in exchange for massive international aid and security guarantees.
U.S. experts said North Korea had enough fuel rods to obtain 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of plutonium, sufficient for the production of four or five nuclear bombs. In February 2005, the reclusive communist country declared itself a "nuclear power," and it went on to carry out its first test of a nuclear bomb in October 2006.
That deal was until recently stalled by delays in transferring $25 million of North Korean funds from a bank in Macao, frozen last year at the request of the U.S. over alleged money laundering and counterfeiting.
