- According to the UN, North Korea is preparing for its first nuclear test in five years.
- Construction work on an underground test facility was recently observed, various news agencies quote from a previously confidential UN report.
- This work paved the way for tests to develop nuclear weapons.
Satellite images indicated that North Korea was repairing its tunnel network in Punggye-ri and rebuilding buildings on the site that were demolished in 2018 as part of negotiations with the United States.
Fissile material production capacity at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility has also been ramped up, according to the UN report covering the past few months.
Atomic Energy Agency makes the same observations
For months, observers have feared that after numerous missile tests, ruler Kim Jong-un’s first nuclear test in almost five years could be imminent. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had already referred to activities in Punggye-ri in June. North Korea conducted six test explosions there between 2006 and 2017.
Legend:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hints at a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central news agency.
Reuters/KCNA
The country does not allow international on-site inspections. According to the UN, North Korea has already fired more than 30 ballistic missiles this year, including several ICBMs, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
“Time of Nuclear Danger”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke on Monday, also in view of North Korea’s nuclear program, that the world is in a “time of nuclear danger such as it has not been since the height of the Cold War”.
Mankind is in danger of forgetting the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation, from nuclear annihilation.”
Nuclear program funded by crypto scams
According to the UN experts, North Korea continues to finance its nuclear program with hacker attacks in which computer specialists smuggle money to Pyongyang by stealing data. They would have captured “hundreds of millions of dollars” in cryptocurrencies. Contrary to the UN sanctions against the autocracy, the country also exports coal.
With the missile tests and his nuclear program, Kim Jong-un wants to increase the pressure on the world community to lift the sanctions. At the same time, diplomacy with the United States has been on hold since Kim’s failed second summit with former US President Donald Trump in February 2019.
North Korea then made it clear several times that it was not interested in new talks as long as Washington made no new proposals. In May, the United States failed in the UN Security Council with a resolution for stricter international sanctions against Pyongyang. Russia and China vetoed the vote in New York