[imText1]A member of National Assembly, Chung Heung Keun of the National Grand Party publicly stated on his homepage “We believe that North Korea has completed all its preparations for an additional experiment without notice.” It is assumed that the nuclear experiment is being prepared in the vicinity of the last experiment conducted last October.
“There is a high chance that the nuclear experiment is being prepared in a tunnel west of a hill, Poongkye-ri, Kilju, North of Hamkyung as movements of one unknown object and personal staff (2-15 people) have been detected around the entrance of the tunnel since last December” asserted Minister Chung.
He said “10min from the entrance of tunnel is a temporary building. Behind this building an engineering construction has been observed to be in its preliminary stages. There is a high chance that this establishment facilitates a nuclear experiment” and “We believe that an additional nuclear experiment is being facilitated in the district of the tunnel and that it is already complete.”
Furthermore, he claimed “Since the last nuclear experiment in October, North Korea has continued to proceed with a second nuclear experiment” and added “Similar measures have been observed in the same village of the tunnel in Poongkye-ri where the nuclear experiment was conducted last October 9th.”
Chung Heung Keun said “Though government authorities claim there is no indication of a second experiment, when we consider the difficulties involved in detecting signs of underground nuclear experiments, a second experiment is a clear possibility.”
Further, he expressed difficultly in accepting the government’s rejection of a possible second experiment saying “Following North Korea’s announcement October 3rd, stating its plan for a nuclear experiment, intelligence authorities could not detect any signs of a nuke experiment. On October 9th, the nuke experiment was launched and in response the director of the National Intelligence Committee reported “There were no particular signs.”
He claimed “With the crippled six party talks and intensifying pressures on North Korea from sanctions by the Security Council, the U.S. and Japan, there is a high chance that an outburst ‘additional experiment’ will be tested modified to the circumstances” and added “In particular, to succeed as a nuclear possessing state, it is important that a technically perfected nuclear weapon is created, thus a need for an additional nuclear experiment and hence the possibility of another experiment.”
Regarding the warning by a member of National Assembly, Chung, a government official said in a telephone conversation with the DailyNK “Just like the discussions on the removal of financial sanctions at the six party talks was low, for now, the chances of a second nuclear experiment is minimal.” The official said “On the topic of chance, there is not a person who could say 0% possibility.”
