North Korea 'more or less ready' for nuke test
Pastor Dale Morgan
North Korea 'more or less ready' for nuke test*
Blast planned for coal mine could be delayed if U.S. makes concessions
--Mail & Guardian, South Africa
Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley | Beijing, China
07 October 2006 06:06
North Korea is "more or less ready" to conduct a nuclear test deep
inside an abandoned coal mine but might hold off it can win concesssions
from the United States, a Chinese source briefed by Pyongyang said on
Friday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a device would be
detonated about 2 000 metres inside a mine near the border with China in
the north of the country.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had issued instructions that the test
should "not excessively rock" Mount Paektu, a nearby peak many Koreans
consider sacred.
"They are more or less ready," the source told Reuters after speaking to
North Korean officials. He did not give a timetable.
His comments could not be independently confirmed, but South Korea
newspapers reported that although there were thousands of mine shafts
that could be used for a test. Seoul and neighbouring countries were
closely monitoring three or four sites.
The Hankook Ilbo newspaper said the most likely site was the
administrative district of Gilju in North Hamkyung province.
This was the area mentioned in a report by United States television
network ABC news in August that an US intelligence agency had observed
suspicious vehicle movements as a suspected nuclear test site.
Hankook Ilbo said a test would not have to take place in Gilju since
there are so many disused mine shafts, and named the districts of Hagab
and Shijung in the province of Jagang, which shares a border with China,
as potential sites.
"Finding the test site beforehand would be akin to finding a needle in
the Han River," it said.
Seeking concessions
The Chinese source said Pyongyang "may not necessarily test", and would
hold off if Beijing and other Asian powers could convince the United
States to lift sanctions and open dialogue.
New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to visit China on Sunday
and South Korea the next day for summits to repair ties frayed by feuds
over their wartime past. But North Korea's nuclear threat will grab a
top spot on the agenda.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun visits China, North Korea's closest
ally and major donor, next Friday.
"The bilaterals will be useless unless they can talk the United States
into changing its attitude and respecting North Korea's sovereignty,"
the Chinese source said.
Pyongyang has boycotted six-country talks aimed at persuading it to
abandon its atomic arms programme for almost a year since the United
States froze its assets in a Macau bank. Washington has said the move is
part of a crackdown on suspected North Korean counterfeiting,
money-laundering and drug-trafficking.
China has hosted the six-party talks since 2003, with the two Koreas,
the United States, Japan and Russia attending.
Peter Hayes, executive director of the Nautilus Institute, a San
Francisco-based think tank that focuses on North Korea, said Pyongyang
was attempting to use the threat of a nuclear test to press the United
States into direct dialogue and concessions, including a lifting of
financial restrictions.
"It's a quite unprecedented use of nuclear weapons to force an adversary
to do something, rather than refrain from doing something," he said.
He said North Korea's plans remained murky but the chances of a nuclear
test were high.
"The chances are that they will do it, having said that they will," he
said. "The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] has been talking
up its military power in the media for some time." - Reuters