Increased Activity Around N. Korean Nuke Test Site
Pastor Dale Morgan
Increased Activity Around North Korean Nuke Test Site*
Thursday August 24, 2006 8:01 PM
By KOZO MIZOGUCHI
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) - Japan has boosted surveillance of North Korea after seeing
vehicles entering and leaving a suspected nuclear test site but does not
know whether a test is imminent, a news report said Thursday.
The vehicles have been seen in recent days at what is thought to be a
nuclear testing site in the northeast of North Korea, Kyodo News agency
reported, citing an unnamed government official.
It was unclear whether any nuclear tests by the North were imminent, but
Japan is closely monitoring the situation, the official was quoted as
saying.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said Tokyo had boosted surveillance of the
area and would continue to closely analyze intelligence, but said the
government would not discuss specifics because of the sensitivity of the
matter.
Defense officials also refused to confirm the Kyodo report.
American media reported last week that U.S. officials were monitoring
potentially suspicious activity at a suspected underground nuclear site.
The report sent diplomats in the region scrambling to avert a possible
test and get the North to return to multinational talks on its nuclear
ambitions, which have stalled since November.
South Korea on Wednesday warned North Korea not to conduct a nuclear
weapons test, saying it would further isolate the communist regime,
while countries launched new efforts to persuade the North to resume
stalled disarmament talks.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said a nuclear test by North
Korea would be much more serious than its July missile tests and create
a ``threatening situation that will shake the foundation of the global
nonproliferation system and will further isolate the North.''
Concerns about a possible North Korean nuclear test grew after an ABC
News report last week cited U.S. officials as saying that potentially
suspicious activity had been observed at a suspected underground nuclear
test site.
South Korea's military has said it sent personnel to keep a
round-the-clock watch at a seismic monitoring station to detect tremors
that could indicate a nuclear explosion.
North Korea's missile tests last month raised regional tensions and
prompted U.N. Security Council sanctions against the North.
North Korea has claimed it has nuclear weapons, but hasn't performed any
known test to confirm it has successfully manufactured an atomic bomb.
However, many experts believe the North has enough radioactive material
to build at least a half-dozen or more nuclear weapons.
Talks on North Korea's nuclear program have been deadlocked since
November, when negotiators failed to make headway in implementing a
September agreement in which North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear
program in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
North Korea has since refused to attend six-nation talks on its nuclear
program until Washington stops blacklisting a bank where the communist
regime held accounts, a restriction imposed over alleged counterfeiting
and money laundering.
Washington has called on the North to return to the nuclear talks
without conditions, saying the issue is unrelated to the financial
restrictions. The talks involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and
the U.S.
North Korea insisted Wednesday it posed no threat to the South and
condemned ongoing U.S.-South Korea joint military drills as a prelude to
war.
``There are no forces of war threatening South Korea in the Korean
Peninsula at present,'' the North's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, wrote
in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Seoul and Washington have said the exercises - mostly simulation-driven
drills that run through Sept. 1 and involve some 17,000 troops - are
defensive in nature.