No sign North Korea reprocessed plutonium in past year, still enriching uranium, IAEA says

FILE PHOTO: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un sits in his vehicle after arriving at a railway station in Dong Dang, Vietnam, at the border with China, February 26, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha//File Photo

VIENNA (Reuters) - There is no sign North Korea reprocessed spent fuel from its main nuclear reactor into plutonium in the past year, but it seems to have continued to enrich uranium, the other potential fuel for atom bombs, the U.N. atomic watchdog said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has not had access to North Korea since the secretive communist state expelled its inspectors in 2009. Pyongyang pressed ahead with its nuclear weapons programme and soon resumed nuclear testing. Its last detonation of a nuclear weapon was in 2017.