New satellite images of North Korea suggest it is nearing completion of a reactor designed for generating electricity - but which will have the capability to produce plutonium.
US academics who visited the site at the Yongbyon nuclear complex in 2010 concluded the reactor was being built for electricity.
Kim Jong-Un shut down a reactor in 2007 during aid negotiations But analysts say that once complete the reactor will have a residual capability to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
The pictures have been published on 38 North - the website of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.
The images - the most recent taken last month - show what appear to be external finishing touches made to the complex.
North Korea revealed an industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility in 2010 designed to provide fuel for the light-water reactor.
This development caused international alarm because of the potential for the centrifuges to be reconfigured to produce highly-enriched uranium - another means of creating fissile material for weapons.
If North Korea has produced enough low-enriched uranium to run the new reactor, it could commence the lengthy process of starting it up in the coming weeks, and be fully operational during the first half of 2014.
Containing the nuclear fuel and keeping the reactor cool pose major challenges - as would unforeseen events like natural disasters that caused a meltdown in Japan's Fukushima reactor in 2011, the analysis says.
"Pyongyang is probably planning to build additional power reactors to end its electricity shortage and help solve its economic problems," said Joel Wit, a former State Department official and editor of 38 North.
The latest image taken in March 2013 shows what could a water channel "It may have some residual ability to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, but the biggest concern about these reactors is whether they are safe or not," he added.
North Korea announced in April that it was restarting an older reactor at Yongbyon from which it is estimated to have derived enough plutonium for six bombs.
The reactor was closed in 2007 during aid-for-disarmament negotiations.
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