North Korea Monitor

CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour recently toured the Yongbyon nuclear facility. Here is how she described it:

We were shown the extraordinary sight of heavy metal pipes, chopped down and laid on the ground: They had been part of a coolant loop that sent steam to the turbine generators to produce electricity.
We saw the distinctive bell-shaped cooling tower, just a shell, the inner guts of the system cut out.
We saw the vital nuclear fuel rods being removed and neutralized under 20 feet of water.
And we even were shown the reprocessing plant where plutonium was extracted from the rods, plutonium that was used for nuclear weapons, the chief engineer admitted.
Parts of the plant are now dismantled, wrapped in plastic and put into storage.
And there are American technicians from the Department of Energy on-site helping with all of this. It seems a far cry from the hostility conjured by the axis of evil (via CNN).