North Korea ready for new nuclear test, analysts warn
Pyongyang could respond to United Nations sanctions with a fifth atomic test
The UN is reportedly close to agreement on the scale of sanctions for Pyongyang’s nuclear test on January 6 and a rocket launch earlier this month.
South Korea is leading the calls for action against its neighbour,
with a senior member of the advisory panel to the president on
reunification demanding that the international community impose
“bone-numbing” sanctions on the North.
But doing so may force Pyongyang into a tit-for-tat response, warned
Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global
Affairs.
“We know that activity has been detected at the North’s nuclear test site and it would almost be embarrassing for Kim Jong-un not to respond when the sanctions are announced”, he told The Telegraph.
“We do not know precisely how much nuclear material the North has in
its arsenal, but the estimates are that it has enough for at least a few
more of these tests”, he said.
South Korean president Park Geun-hye speaks at the national assembly in Seoul Photo: Getty Images
Alternatively, if the North Korean leader wants to preserve his nuclear stockpiles, then he may opt for a new round of conventional provocations, such as the artillery attack against South Korean propaganda loudspeakers on the border in August last year.
South Korean intelligence sources have recently warned the Blue House, however, that the North appears to be preparing for a fifth nuclear test
That assessment is supported by analysts at 38 North, the website operated by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University. While commercial satellite imagery has detected no obvious signs of an imminent detonation, a report says there was no warning ahead of the January 6 test either.
The images suggest that tunnels for the nuclear tests have already been completed, while the North Koreans have learned how to time their activities so as to avoid the passage of commercial satellites or beneath the cover of cloud.
Activity at the Main Support Area for the Punggye-ri proving grounds could also indicate preparations for a new test, the report stated.
The situation the peninsula is sufficiently tense for the US to forward-deploy four F-22 stealth fighters to Osan Air Base, near Seoul. The arrival of the Raptors from their home base in Japan coincides with a US nuclear submarine carrying out exercises with elements of the South Korean navy.
South Korean president Park Geun-hye speaks at the national assembly in Seoul Photo: Getty Images
Alternatively, if the North Korean leader wants to preserve his nuclear stockpiles, then he may opt for a new round of conventional provocations, such as the artillery attack against South Korean propaganda loudspeakers on the border in August last year.
South Korean intelligence sources have recently warned the Blue House, however, that the North appears to be preparing for a fifth nuclear test
That assessment is supported by analysts at 38 North, the website operated by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University. While commercial satellite imagery has detected no obvious signs of an imminent detonation, a report says there was no warning ahead of the January 6 test either.
The images suggest that tunnels for the nuclear tests have already been completed, while the North Koreans have learned how to time their activities so as to avoid the passage of commercial satellites or beneath the cover of cloud.
Activity at the Main Support Area for the Punggye-ri proving grounds could also indicate preparations for a new test, the report stated.
The situation the peninsula is sufficiently tense for the US to forward-deploy four F-22 stealth fighters to Osan Air Base, near Seoul. The arrival of the Raptors from their home base in Japan coincides with a US nuclear submarine carrying out exercises with elements of the South Korean navy.
