FACTBOX-Key facts on North Korea's nuclear capabilities

(Reuters) - The United States laid out intelligence on Thursday it says shows North Korea helped Syria build a suspected nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel last year.

Here are some facts about North Korea's nuclear program.

THE FACILITY

- North Korea's nuclear program dates back to at least the 1980s, and is centred at Yongbyon, about 60 miles (100 km) north of Pyongyang.

- It consists of a five-megawatt reactor, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant, where weapons-grade material would be extracted from spent fuel rods.

- In October 1994, the United States and North Korea struck a deal to freeze Yongbyon in exchange for more proliferation-resistant reactors to be built by an international consortium. That project has been cancelled.

ESCALATION

- The U.S. confronted North Korea in October 2002 and accused it of having a clandestine plan to enrich uranium for weapons. North Korea, which denies having such a program, has ample supplies of natural uranium in its territory. In theory, it could enrich uranium away from the eyes of spy satellites.

- In February 2005, North Korea declared for the first time it had nuclear weapons.