May 30, JUCHE 82 (1994)

DPRK nuclear technicians, working at feverish pace, hurried to complete the unloading of some 8,000 spent fuel rods from­­ its 5-megawatt nuclear reactor at the Yongbyon complex.  Defying demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Security Council, on May 30, 1994 workers dumped used fuel rods haphazardly—and intentionally—into large storage baskets.  Removing the fuel rods in this manner rendered future IAEA tests, needed to reveal how much plutonium Pyongyang had already produced for its nuclear weapons program, impossible.