Is North Korea going to conduct nuclear/ Missile Test?

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Activities intensify at NKorea nuclear, missile sites: report
Seoul (AFP) May 7, 2009
North Korea has intensified activities at weapons sites after threatening to stage more nuclear and missile tests in response to UN sanctions, a South Korean newspaper reported Thursday.
The Chosun Ilbo said busy movements of vehicles and people had been spotted in the northeastern county of Kilju, where the communist state carried out its first atomic test in October 2006.

The North has also been speeding up construction of a new long-range missile launch site on the west coast, the largest-circulation daily said, citing a government source.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service declined comment on the report.

"It's hard to forecast the timing for an underground nuclear test but the North is believed to be ready to do so at short notice," the source was quoted as telling the daily.

The North has also brought more people and equipment to the new launch site at Dongchang-ri, the report said.

The site 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest of Pyongyang was initially expected to be finished by year-end but is now likely to be completed a few months earlier than anticipated, the source said.

South Korea's defence minister said last November the site was 80 percent complete and would be able to handle larger missiles than those previously fired.

The North has a separate site at Musudan-ri on the east coast, where it launched a long-range rocket on April 5. It said it put a peaceful satellite into orbit but other nations saw the launch as a disguised missile test.

After the UN Security Council condemned the launch and tightened sanctions, the North quit six-party nuclear disarmament talks and said it restarted a programme to make weapons-grade plutonium.

Last week it announced it would conduct a second nuclear test and ballistic missile tests unless the United Nations apologises for condemning and punishing its rocket launch.

Stephen Bosworth, the US special envoy for North Korea, was due Thursday in China on the first leg of a tour which will also take him to South Korea, Japan and Russia. He has no current plans to visit North Korea.

Bosworth will consult the fellow six-party members on ways to persuade the North to come back to negotiations.

Even before Pyongyang's pullout, the long-running talks were deadlocked by a dispute over how to verify the North's declared nuclear activities.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has played down hopes of an early breakthrough, saying last week that "at this point (it) seems implausible if not impossible" that the North will return to the six-party talks.

In Washington President Barack Obama spoke by phone Wednesday with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and shared his "concerns" over security issues including North Korea's nuclear programme, the White House said

 

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More.... reports..

NK Says US Plotting War Not More Talks
Seoul (AFP) May 5, 2009
North Korea vowed Tuesday it would not give up its nuclear weapons programme and accused the United States of working on new plans to attack the communist country.
The Korean peninsula is "on the brink of war because of a new war scheme by US hostile forces," the North's ruling party newspaper Rodon Sinmun said in an editorial.

It reiterated a promise by Pyongyang to bolster its deterrent, arguing the United States has been working on a new "nuclear war scenario for aggression."

"We are compelled to bolster our nuclear deterrent" as hostile forces have clarified their scheme to occupy North Korea by force, it added.

The North has made similar comments almost every day since threatening last week to carry out fresh nuclear and missile tests unless the United Nations apologises for condemning and punishing its April 5 rocket launch.

Pyongyang says the launch put communications satellite into orbit, but the United States, South Korea and Japan say it was a disguised missile test.

On Monday, the North's foreign ministry denounced Washington for trying to find an excuse for applying sanctions against Pyongyang.

The UN Security Council on April 13 slapped sanctions against North Korea, banning transactions and calling on UN member states to freeze the assets of three business entities of Pyongyang.

In protest, the North said it had started reprocessing spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon complex to make weapons-grade plutonium.

It had already announced it was quitting a six-nation nuclear disarmament pact with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Analysts say the North's threat to conduct a second nuclear test, following a first in October 2006, is aimed at forcing the United States to open direct negotiations.

 

[white_pawn]

Some countries, like US, Japan & South Korea definately going to oppose and try to preasurise NK to quite or terminate it but with ignoring it NK will go ahead with the test as it has been doing in the past. But one got to admire NK as even after so much preasure from International community it has done what's good for its country, definatly it has effected the common man,but again its a communist country so the common humam being cant interfear in some of the governments work.