Seoul(AsiaNews/Agencies) – Suspicious activities have been noticed in a remote area ofNorth Korea, the same place where the regime carried out its first nuclear test on 9 October, a South Korean MP said yesterday.
Chung Hyung-keun, of the opposition Grand National Party, was speaking during a meeting with national party leaders. “Since the beginning of this month, there has been very hectic activity at a tunnel nearMountMantapin Punggyeri.”
The area, 350km northeast ofPyongyang, is the place where the regime carried out its first nuclear test in early October 2006.
Chung continued: “Engineering works have been under way on a large scale there. Western intelligence authorities regard it as a possible site for a second nuclear test.”
The MP’s comments came as six-party talks inBeijingonPyongyang’s nuclear disarmament wound up without bearing any fruit. The talks, boycotted byNorth Koreafor more than a year, aim to convincePyongyang, in a pacific manner, to give up its nuclear programme and to dismantle operational reactors.
The US envoy at the talks, Christopher Hill, said Korean and US negotiators were working together to implement the joint agreement signed by the six powers – China, Russia, Japan, United States and the two Koreas – in September 2005. This promised humanitarian aid toNorth Koreaand political assurances in return for nuclear disarmament.
But aSeoulofficial present at the talks saidNorth Korea“was refusing negotiations without concessions on theUSfreeze of North Korean accounts atMacao’s banks”.Washingtonholds that the accounts were used for counterfeitingUScurrency and money laundering.
