UN report details how North Korea is preparing its first nuke test since 2017
- Construction work at North Korea’s Punggye-ri testing ground observed in recent months, UN experts report
- Fissile material production capacity has also been ramped up at the country’s Yongbyon nuclear facility
UN experts say North Korea is paving the way for additional nuclear tests with new preparations at its northeastern test site and continues to develop its capability to produce a key ingredient for nuclear weapons.
The experts also said in key excerpts from their latest report obtained late Thursday by Associated Press that North Korea conducted two major hacks this year, resulting in the theft of cryptocurrency assets worth “hundreds of millions of dollars”.
They said Pyongyang also continues illicitly importing oil and exporting coal in violation of UN sanctions, using the same companies, networks and vessels.
South Korean and US intelligence officials have said they detected North Korean efforts to prepare its northeastern Punggye-ri testing ground for another nuclear test.
It would be the North’s seventh since 2006 and the first since September 2017, when it claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear bomb to fit on its intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The panel of experts’ report to the UN Security Council provides some details of the work being carried out at the site by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.