[If the North tests another nuclear device, it would be a major show of defiance by Kim Jong-un, coming after President Trump’s repeated warnings against his country. Speaking on Monday in Seoul, the South Korean capital, Vice President Mike Pence said North Korea would do well not to test Mr. Trump’s “resolve or the strength of armed forces of the United States in the region.”]
By Choe Sang-Hun
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Trailers,
mining carts and a net canopy at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in
North
Korea were spotted in satellite images taken on Wednesday.
Credit
DigitalGlobe/38 North, via Getty Images
|
SEOUL,
South Korea — North Korea
appears to have resumed work at its nuclear test site after a perplexing series
of volleyball matches were held there, according to analysts who studied
satellite images of the site, renewing concerns that a major weapons test could
be imminent.
Many observers had feared that North Korea
would test a nuclear device at the site around April 15, the birthday of Kim
Il-sung, the North’s founding president and the grandfather of the current
leader, Kim Jong-un. But Mr. Kim’s government celebrated the day instead with a
military parade in Pyongyang, the capital, during which a fleet of missiles
were rolled out, including what analysts believed were never-before-seen
long-range ballistic missiles.
North Korea carried out a missile test on
Sunday, but it was considered an embarrassing failure, with the projectile
exploding immediately after liftoff.
But North Korea is preparing to celebrate
another major holiday this coming week: Tuesday will be the 85th anniversary of
the founding of the Korean People’s Army, and the North often uses such
occasions to show off its military advances.
“Given the North’s recent provocative words
and actions and its April 25 People’s Army anniversary, there is concern that
the North can attempt a provocation at any time,” South Korea’s acting
president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, said Thursday.
On Friday, the analysts Joseph S. Bermudez
Jr. and Jack Liu posted new satellite images of the nuclear test site in
Punggye-ri, in northeastern North Korea, on 38 North, a website affiliated with
the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
From the commercial imagery dating from
Wednesday, they noted what looked like trailers near the portal of a tunnel
where they said North Korea appeared to have been preparing for a nuclear test,
which would be its sixth. They also noted mining carts along the tracks leading
to a spoil pile and a net canopy, presumably concealing equipment.
The North Koreans appeared to have stopped
pumping water out of the tunnel. In an earlier report, the analysts said this
might mean that the tunnel had been sealed for a possible test.
In their previous study of satellite photos,
taken last Sunday, the analysts noted several teams at the test site playing
volleyball, a popular sport in the North. That left observers wondering whether
the North Koreans were engaged in some sort of deception — they are believed to
know when commercial satellites that take such images will fly overhead — or
were simply taking Sunday off.
No one was playing volleyball in the images
taken Wednesday.
Mr. Bermudez and Mr. Liu said it was unclear
whether the latest activity from Punggye-ri reflected a “tactical pause” before
a coming nuclear test, a prolonged “stand-down” from testing or normal
operations at the site.
“Regardless, satellite imagery continues to
indicate that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site appears able to conduct a sixth
nuclear test at any time once the order is received from Pyongyang,” they
concluded.
If the North tests another nuclear device, it
would be a major show of defiance by Kim Jong-un, coming after President
Trump’s repeated warnings against his country. Speaking on Monday in Seoul, the
South Korean capital, Vice President Mike Pence said North Korea would do well
not to test Mr. Trump’s “resolve or the strength of armed forces of the United
States in the region.”
On Saturday in Sydney, Australia, Mr. Pence
said that an American naval strike group led by the aircraft carrier Carl
Vinson was expected to be in the Sea of Japan, which borders the Korean
Peninsula, by the end of April.
Senior aides to Mr. Trump have said that
military options are not off the table in dealing with North Korea’s rapidly
advancing nuclear and missile technologies. Those remarks prompted fears in the
region that the new American president might order a pre-emptive strike at
North Korea’s weapons sites, which could set off a war.
North Korea has conducted a series of nuclear
and ballistic missile tests since 2006 as it seeks to develop a small,
sophisticated nuclear warhead and an intercontinental ballistic missile, or
ICBM, capable of reaching targets as far away as the United States.
In a New Year’s Day speech, Mr. Kim said his
country was almost ready to conduct its first ICBM test.
