North Korea says it has removed all remaining spent nuclear fuel rods from its main reactor, a move that could allow it to reprocess the fuel and extract weapons-grade plutonium.
The country's official news agency quoted a North Korean official as saying technicians have successfully removed 8,000 spent fuel rods from the Yongbyon nuclear plant.
Security analyst Tim Savage of the International Crisis Group research organization in Seoul, says the action seems for now to be a provocative move by North Korea, though not an immediate danger.
"It is going to take them a couple of months to reprocess it. So, it is adding fuel to the fire, but it is not anything spectacularly new," he said.
Pyongyang's announcement follows reports from Washington that North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear test.
The new U.S. ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, said a test would be a serious blow to the process of bringing the North back to multi-party negotiations on ending its nuclear program.
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North Korea's official news agency is reporting that the country has finished removing all its spent nuclear fuel rods, over 8,000 of them, from the main reactor in the  nuclear plant.

The rods could be reprocessed for several months to extract weapons-grade .  Officials say the rods could be able to provide enough plutonium to make two nuclear bombs.  

This could possibly signal that North Korea is preparing for a nuclear arms test.  North Korea may already have enough materials to make six nuclear bombs.

North Korea has also announced plans to continue operating the Yongbyon facility, as well as to begin construction on a larger reactor.