By Jack Kim
SEOUL - North Korea is digging a tunnel at its nuclear test site which would make it ready to conduct a third nuclear test by March, a newspaper reported on Wednesday as South Korea prepared for its largest civil defence drills in years.
U.S. and South Korean intelligence have been watching the North's nuclear sites for any activity which analysts say could be part of efforts to gain leverage in the international talks it is seeking and secure aid to prop up a destitute economy.
Photo from Reuters
North Korean defectors, who were former soldiers in the North Korean People's Army, chant slogans during a news conference, denouncing the North's bombardment on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, in Seoul December 13, 2010. North Korea fired scores of artillery shells at the island on November 23, 2010, killing two soldiers, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.
South Korea's foreign ministry said it was closely monitoring the site, but noted there was no concrete evidence to show the North Koreans were preparing for a third nuclear test.
The amount of earth removed from the site in Punggye township in a northeastern region indicated the tunnel was about 500 metres deep, half the depth needed for a nuclear test, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo daily said.
"North Korea is digging the ground pretty hard when it's cold enough to freeze the ground at its two major nuclear facilities," an intelligence official was quoted as saying.
"At this rate, 1 km that is needed for a nuclear test by March to May," a separate intelligence source told the newspaper.
North Korea is also speeding up work on new construction at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex, where it revealed a previously unknown uranium enrichment facility last month, the newspaper quoted intelligence sources as saying.
South Korea's foreign ministry declined to confirm the details of the report, but said: "Nothing has been confirmed that would prove the North is preparing to conduct a nuclear test."
CIVIL DEFENCE DRILL
The report coincided with preparations on Wednesday for South Korea's largest civil defence drill in recent years at 0500 GMT. The exercise involves stopping traffic and mass evacuation to bomb shelters.
Tensions on the peninsula rose dramatically after North Korea fired dozens of rounds of artillery at a South Korean island in late November killing four people. It said the South triggered the incident by first firing artillery at the North, an allegation which Seoul denies.
Analysts say North Korea's unveiling of a modern uranium enrichment facility and preparations for another nuclear test are likely to be ploys to pull regional powers back to the negotiating table.
The impoverished state has in the past secured economic aid and diplomatic attention at six-nation talks aimed at persuading it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
The country showed a uranium enrichment facility at the Yongbyon site to a U.S. expert in November.
South Korea's foreign minister said on Tuesday he suspected there were more facilities in addition to Yongbyon where the North was enriching uranium. A media report said Pyongyang had three to four such plants.
North Korea conducted nuclear tests at the Punggye site in 2006 and 2009, when detonations in tunnels were detected by U.S. and South Korean monitoring.
The U.N. Security Council condemned last year's test and imposed tough sanctions aimed at banning North Korea's arms trade and cutting off funding for such programmes.
Analysts say ailing leader Kim Jong-il's plan to transfer power to his son Jong-un is also creating domestic political pressure as resorts to military grandstanding to try to build legitimacy for the untested and previously unknown successor.
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