N. Korea building reactor: U.S. security group

A private American security institute says new satellite images and interviews with American experts show North Korea is constructing an experimental, light-water nuclear reactor at its main Yongbyon atomic complex.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said Thursday that the North's reactor is 25 to 30 megawatts. Light-water reactors are ostensibly for civilian nuclear power.

The institute based its report on satellite images from Nov. 4 and information from Siegfried Hecker, former director of the U.S. Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, and Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. envoy for negotiations with North Korea.

Hecker and Pritchard recently returned from a trip to Yongbyon.

North Korea vowed in March to build a light-water reactor.