(CNN) -- A State Department team is traveling to South Korea Sunday, after a U.S. scientist reported that North Korea has a new uranium enrichment facility.
North Korean officials said the facility is operating and producing low-enriched uranium, according to Stanford University professor Siegfried S. Hecker. The scientist posted a report of his November 12 visit to the Yongbyon, North Korea, facility on the university's website Saturday.
The enrichment program claim is "yet another provocative act of defiance and, if true, contradicts its own pledges and commitments," a senior official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration said.
The State Department team departed for Asia to "begin to coordinate on a response to this news," the official said.
"We have long suspected North Korea of having this kind of capability, and we have regularly raised it with them directly and with our partners in this effort. North Korea has tried to use missiles and nuclear tests to threaten the international community and extract concessions," the administration official said.
The enrichment facility is comprised of 2,000 centrifuges, according to Hecker's report.
They appear to be designed for nuclear power production, "not to boost North Korea's military capability," Hecker says.
"Nevertheless, the uranium enrichment facilities could be readily converted to produce highly-enriched uranium (HEU) bomb fuel," he adds.
North Korea blew up part of its Yongbyon nuclear plant in June 2008 in full view of CNN and a handful of international broadcasters invited to witness the dramatic and symbolic event. It was praised internationally as a move by North Korea away from nuclear weapons capabilities.
The implosion came just 24 hours after Pyongyang had handed in its long-awaited nuclear declaration and after then-U.S. President George W. Bush lifted some sanctions against North Korea and removed it from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism.
Months later, North Korea took a step back, demanding the International Atomic Energy Agency remove surveillance equipment and seals from the Yongbyon nuclear facility. North Korea then reintroduced nuclear material to the facility.
Recent satellite imagery taken of North Korea revealed renewed construction at the nuclear power site. Hecker's report confirms the construction is a new nuclear reactor.
He describes the Yongbyon nuclear facilities as "ultra-modern and clean" and notes that this is in sharp contrast to what he witnessed in previous visits.
A Stanford University spokesman told CNN that Hecker was traveling and unable to comment Saturday. The professor plans to speak about his North Korea visit Tuesday at a presentation in Washington, spokesman Michael Freedman said.
Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, who is the Obama administration's point person on North Korea policy, heads the State Department delegation traveling to Asia. The U.S. officials are scheduled to arrive in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, the State Department said in a statement. They will travel Monday to Tokyo, Japan, head Tuesday to Beijing, China, and return to Washington Wednesday.
