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| Image: Wiki Commons |
By Ankit Panda
North Korea tested its weapons in 2006, 2009, and 2013 at Punggye-ri. Is another test in the works?
According to reports from South Korea’s defense ministry, North Korea could be heading toward the “new form” of nuclear test that it threatened earlier this year. South Korean intelligence has picked up an increase in activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province. Punggye-ri was the host of the 2006, 2009, and 2013 nuclear tests by the North and is likely to be the origin of its next test. Should North Korea test nuclear weapons this year, it would be the first time it has done so in consecutive years.
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok noted that a special taskforce had been set up in the South to react to a potential underground detonation by the North. ”We plan to thoroughly prepare for a fourth nuclear test or any other form of provocation,” he added. Kim notes that the South Korean Defense Ministry is not ruling out the possibility that Pyongyang might “fake a test” to coincide with U.S. President Barack Obama’s arrival in Seoul. Obama’s visit to Seoul is part of a four-country Asia tour that also includes Japan, the Philippines, and Malaysia. In Seoul, Obama and President Park Geun-hye will discuss their approach to North Korea.
Kim did not specify what sort of activities in particular the South had observed in North Korea. According to an anonymous South Korea official, North Korea had draped a large screen over the entrance of Punggye-ri to conceal its activities from the prying eyes of Western spy satellites.
Read the full story at The Diplomat