N Korea ‘on brink of new atomic blast’
NORTH Korea is ‘primed and ready’ to detonate a nuclear bomb, experts examining satellite images claimed yesterday.
US officials fear the device has been installed in underground tunnels and could be the regime’s most powerful bomb yet, as tests grow steadily more destructive.
And Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe warned: ‘There is a possibility that North Korea is already capable of shooting missiles with sarin as a warhead.’
The nerve gas is believed to have been used by Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, prompting President Trump’s retaliatory airstrikes last week.
Analysts from the North Korea monitoring service 38 North said aerial photos show reduced activity at the Punggye-ri test site – which suggests the country may be ready to carry out its sixth nuclear detonation in defiance of UN resolutions since 2006.
The agency correctly predicted the most recent test in September last year.
Experts examining satellite imagery found a wide range of activity, including tunnel excavations at Mount Mantap, a mile-high peak where the regime conducts its nuclear tests.
The country continues to pursue its ambition of putting a nuclear warhead on a missile system capable of reaching targets around the globe. Pyongyang often marks significant dates with shows of military force and it is thought the detonation may take place on Saturday to coincide with its national ‘Day of the Sun’ celebrations.
The event marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il-sung. Meanwhile, amid heightened tensions with Washington, a US navy aircraft carrier is heading toward the Korean Peninsula
With US-South Korean war games ongoing, Pyongyang has intensified warnings it will retaliate strongly against any aggression. Seoul has long said it believes the North can conduct its sixth nuclear test.
Since late February, 38 North has been warning of increased activity at the rogue regime’s nuclear site. Analyst Joseph Bermudez told CNN: ‘We take the current image and look back several months and compare it to what was happening then.’
After an increase in activity in recent months, the latest satellite images show excavation work and water pumping appear to have stopped – an indication the site is ‘primed and ready’ for explosion.
The then South Korean president Park Geun-hye described last September’s fifth nuclear test – believed to be the North’s biggest ever – as an act of ‘self-destruction’ showing the ‘maniacal recklessness’ of leader Kim Jong-un.