North Korea ‘ready’ for nuke test
Preparations observed near underground site
WASHINGTON • Recent satellite photos show North Korea could be almost ready to carry out its threat to conduct a nuclear test, a U.S. research institute said Friday.
The images of the Punggye-ri site where nuclear tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009 reveal that over the past month roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated. But it remains difficult to discern North Korea’s intentions as a test would be conducted underground.
The analysis was provided by 38 North, the website of U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The latest image was taken Wednesday.
North Korea’s powerful National Defence Commission declared its plans Thursday after the UN Security Council tightened sanctions in response to a December long-range rocket launch. It described it as part of a “new phase” of combat with the United States, which retains 28,000 troops in South Korea and which it blames for leading the UN bid to punish Pyongyang.
The North said a nuclear test was part of “upcoming” action but did not say when or where it would take place.
38 North concludes that the Punggye-ri site, in the country’s northeast, “appears to continue to be at a state of readiness that would allow the North to move forward with a test in a few weeks or less once the leadership in Pyongyang gives the order.”
U.S. officials confirmed Friday that the U.S. has seen some trucks moving around the site. One official said the U.S. is not ruling out that the test could happen in the near future.
But the officials cautioned that, as in previous tests, because it would be done underground, the U.S. may not know much before it actually happens. In 2006, North Korea detonated a nuclear device just six days after it announced its plans to do so, and in 2009, 26 days after the announcement. Both tests came weeks after the UN Security Council had condemned it for long-range rocket launches.
“While the test site appears to continue to be at a high state of readiness, it’s anyone’s guess when a detonation might occur. The North Koreans may do it tomorrow, some other day or they may decide to wait until a meaningful date like Kim Jong Il’s birthday on February 16th,” said Joel Wit, a former U.S. State Department official and the editor of 38 North.
Anniversaries related to members of North Korea’s ruling dynasty, such as former leader Kim Jong Il who died in December 2011, are marked with great fanfare in the authoritarian nation.