The evaluation concludes that Kim Jong Un’s authorities is making preparations on the Punggye-ri nuclear take a look at web site and may very well be able to conduct a take a look at by the top of the month. Signs of personnel and car exercise on the web site have been seen by satellite tv for pc imagery, however the officers have no idea if the regime has positioned nuclear materials in one of many underground tunnels on the take a look at web site, which the US has been carefully watching.
If North Korea conducts a take a look at, it could be the nation’s seventh underground nuclear take a look at and the primary in almost 5 years.
US President Joe Biden is scheduled to go to South Korea and Japan later this month. It would not be the primary time the specter of a nuclear take a look at has loomed over a presidential go to: North Korea was making ready for a take a look at in 2014 when President Barack Obama visited South Korea, and in 2016, North Korea carried out a nuclear take a look at shortly after Obama and different world leaders departed Asia following a summit.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki mentioned Thursday that the White House isn’t involved in regards to the President’s journey to East Asia later this month.
“I might say we actually at all times assess safety as we do with any of the President’s journey however that has not been a priority because it pertains to his journey arising in only a few weeks,” Psaki mentioned.
She added: “There’s no query that North Korea goes to be on the agenda when he visits South Korea and Japan.”
Last month, CNN reported that satellite tv for pc imagery confirmed North Korea was tunneling once more at its distant underground nuclear take a look at web site to doubtlessly shorten the time it wanted to conduct its subsequent take a look at.
North Korea has carried out six earlier nuclear exams on the web site, which lies north of Pyongyang, most just lately in September 2017. In addition to its preparations for a potential nuclear take a look at, North Korea has carried out repeated ballistic missile exams this yr — the most recent missile launch occurring on Wednesday.
According to the satellite tv for pc imagery, the crosscut tunnel on the take a look at web site intersects with one of many important tunnels past the doorway, that means there’s a shorter distance to the underground launch space. In 2018, North Korea blew up the unique entrance to the tunnel however doubtless didn’t destroy all the underground construction.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby instructed reporters Wednesday the Pentagon was “very deeply involved” by North Korea’s missile exams, including that the US and worldwide group has condemned the provocations.
“There’s by no means an excellent time fairly frankly for the DPRK to conduct these sorts of exams,” Kirby mentioned. “We proceed to name on the North to cease these provocative exams and to be prepared to take a seat down, as we now have provided we might be prepared to do with out pre-condition, and to debate a diplomatic method ahead right here to de-nuclearize the North.”
Kirby instructed reporters that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a cellphone name Thursday with South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook to debate the safety surroundings on the Korean Peninsula.
Last month, Kim vowed to ramp up his nation’s growth of nuclear arms, saying throughout a navy parade that Pyongyang would “strengthen and develop” its nuclear forces on the “highest potential” velocity.
Wednesday’s missile take a look at was North Korea’s thirteenth this yr, in comparison with eight in 2021 and 4 in 2020. This yr’s exams included a March ICBM launch, the primary time Pyongyang had launched that sort of missile in 4 years.
CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Kevin Liptak, Zachary Cohen, Sam Fossum and Arlette Saenz contributed reporting.