New evidence that North Korea's 5-Megawatt Yongbyon nuclear reactor is up and running again, came out from Johns Hopkins, with satellite imagery showing hot waste-water being discharged into the Kuryong River from a pipeline connected to the plant.

This new imagery comes on the heels of imagery released on August 31 showing steam emitting from the nuclear complex that was shut down and had its cooling tower destroyed as part of a nuclear disarmament deal in 2008. The secondary cooling system that was completed this summer takes the place of that disabled tower.

After the 2008 disarmamant deal, approximately 6,000 of the 8,000 fuel rods had been discharged from the plant, but after North Korea’s April 2009 rocket launch, efforts to finish the discharge of the remaining fuel rods to cooling ponds slowed to a halt.

In April of 2013, following a third nuclear test carried out by Pyongyang in February, North Korea announced that they were going to restart their mothballed nuclear reactors and resume production of weapons-grade plutonium.

Russia had cautioned, and attempted to discourage the restart of the antiquated Yongbyon reactor, that they said was in a “horrific state” of disrepair. Russian diplomats speaking on the subject said that a restart of the reactor could lead to a devastating nuclear catastrophe on the Korean peninsula.

This new evidence of a restart comes after North Korea renewed its call to resume nuclear negotiations. At the same time, the International Atomic Energy Agency called on North Korea to halt all of its nuclear activities including weapons tests and the restart of reactors.

This week, North Korea spoke at the United Nations and told those there that they have to develop a nuclear deterrent against the hostile policies of the United States and also stated that as a nuclear power they will not allow their nuclear weapons to become a bargaining chip in negotiations.