North Korea is preparing for a new nuclear test. It will be the country's first nuclear weapons test since 2016. Satellite images of North Korea's nuclear weapons test site suggest that. News Financial Times.
Fungeri, in the northeast of North Korea, is one of North Korea's strategic weapons test sites. Satellite images this week show the construction of some new buildings, heavy wood, and machinery. Several devices and vehicles were spotted near the new entrance to the Fungeri nuclear test site.
Experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington said this after analyzing Fungeri's picture. They said members of the North Korean military were seen playing volleyball in front of the main administrative building at the Fungeri test site. Following North Korean President Kim Jong Un's remarks at a military parade this week, additional troop deployments and construction efforts in Fungri are signaling an impending nuclear test.
In a military parade in North Korea this week, Kim Jong Un said that the first mission in North Korea's nuclear arsenal was to stop the war, but there was a second mission outside.
CSIS experts say some sources suggest that North Korea may conduct its seventh nuclear test between May and September this year. However, the final decision on the duration of the test will be made by Kim Jong Un alone.
They also said that the current satellite images indicate that preparations for the test are underway. There is no chance of avoiding the issue by considering it as an 'unimportant' activity.
Leif Eric-Ozley, a professor of international studies at Ashwa Women's University in Seoul, said that if the Kim administration wanted to conduct a provocative test, they would choose between the inauguration of South Korea's new president on May 10 and the visit of US President Joe Biden later that month. That is, they could run the test any day after May 10 and before Biden's visit.
He added that since the Chinese Communist Party has a five-year conference later in the year, Kim would not run the test at that time to avoid the anger of his Chinese well-wishers.
North Korea has displayed a number of sophisticated weapons during a parade in Pyongyang this week. In addition to a hypersonic glide vehicle, the country's best-known "monster" Huasong intercontinental ballistic missile and a new type of solid-fuel missile. The idea is to develop a solid fuel-based missile for launch from submarines.
Analysts say US-led sanctions against North Korea since the 2016 nuclear test has not hampered the country's continued expansion of its nuclear and strategic weapons program. Diplomacy between the two countries also came to a standstill in 2019 after a planned meeting between the North Korean leader and former US President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam.