North Korea test site activity could be ‘a bluff’

SEOUL: Heightened activity at a North Korean nuclear test site could be a bluff rather than preparations to set off an atomic device soon, the head of an international body set up to monitor a ban on nuclear testing said yesterday.

A report by 38 North, a North Korea project at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, said satellite images showed construction of a test tunnel at Punggye-ri, on North Korea’s east coast where it conducted its three previous nuclear tests.

“I’m tempted to believe that the fourth tunnel is just a bluff to put pressure on the international community to resume discussion with them,” Lassina Zerbo, head of the Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), told Reuters.

North Korea has conducted three underground nuclear tests since 2006.

The last, in 2013, drew international condemnation including from China, its main diplomatic ally. Isolated North Korea is under UN sanctions that prohibit trade that can fund its arms programme.

Diplomatic talks among six countries, aimed at ending its nuclear programme, produced a deal in 2005 from which the North has since walked away. North Korea has been steadily working on its nuclear programme, but a fourth test is not seen as imminent. – Reuters