The ‘unholy alliance’ between Pakistan and North Korea is well known. Pakistan gave North Korea nuclear technology and received missiles.

A recent ‘coincidence’ in two nuclear reactors, one in Pakistan and the other in North Korea, has India and the world worried.

Pakistan is setting up a 50MW thermal power plant (meaning using coal) at the Khushab nuclear power plant. It is a critical facility, producing weapons-grade plutonium for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.  

The power plant is clearly for an uninterrupted supply of electricity to the nuclear complex. Other logistical work is also going on at Khushab.

At about the same time, the North Koreans have begun operating a coal-fired power plant at their Yongbyon nuclear facility, after a gap of two years. Here, North Korea extracts plutonium from the reprocessing of spent fuel rods.

What has made both countries set up coal-fired power plants at their nuclear facilities? Are both countries in a discussion about their nuclear projects? Is the old alliance still in place? And if the alliance is in place, what does it mean for not just the sub-continent and the world? We may know very soon.