North Korea to make plutonium?

This is an alarming report.

North Korea is planning to unload fuel rods at its Yongbyon reactor within the next three months in what would be a significant boost to its nuclear weapons capability, an American scholar said Saturday.

During a meeting this past week in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, Selig Harrison said Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan told him that North Korea would unload the rods "beginning this fall, and no later than the end of the year."

The Yongbyon reactor has been at the center of US concerns about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The reactor's spent fuel rods can be mined for plutonium, which can then be used to construct nuclear bombs.

Removing the fuel rods is "a significant new development because it underlines that North Korea is enhancing its weapons capability," Harrison told reporters in Beijing shortly after arriving from a four-day stay in North Korea.