North Korea reactivating closed nuclear test site, satellite images suggest

Punggye-ri has been closed since 2018, when North Korea declared a self-imposed ban on nuclear weapons tests that Kim Jong-un says he no longer feels bound by

Analysts from the US-based Centre for Nonproliferation Studies said that the test site is many months, if not years, from being ready for new nuclear explosions

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A North Korean soldier stands guard at the entrance to a tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility in 2018. Photo: News1 / Dong-a Ilbo via AFP

Published: 10:23am, 8 Mar 2022Updated: 10:27am, 8 Mar 2022

Commercial satellite imagery shows construction at North Korea’s nuclear testing site for the first time since it was closed in 2018, US-based analysts said on Tuesday, amid fears the country could resume testing major weapons.

Images captured by satellite on Friday showed very early signs of activity at the new site, including construction of a new building, repair of another building, and what is possibly some timber and sawdust, specialists at the California-based James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) said in a report.

“The construction and repair work indicate that North Korea has made some decision about the status of the test site,” the report said.

A satellite image of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site taken in 2017. Photo: CNES / Airbus Defense and Space / 38 North Handout via AFP

Punggye-ri has been closed since North Korea declared a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear weapons tests in 2018. Leader Kim Jong-un, however, has said he no longer feels bound by that moratorium as denuclearisation talks are stalled.

At the time, North Korea said it was closing the site’s tunnels with explosions, blocking its entrances, and removing all observation facilities, research buildings and security posts. It invited a handful of foreign media to observe the demolition, but refused to allow international inspectors.

After North Korea’s ninth missile launch of the year on Sunday, South Korea’s National Security Council said it was even more closely monitoring North Korea’s nuclear and missile-related facilities including its main nuclear reactor facility at Yongbyon and the Punggye-ri nuclear weapons test site, without elaborating.