North Korea looks set to detonate its first nuclear bomb in more than four years, as the United States' sanctions disputes with Russia and China make further United Nations penalties against the country unlikely.
Workers have been observed digging a new passageway at the Punggye-ri site where North Korea conducted all six of its previous nuclear tests, South Korean media including the DongA Ilbo newspaper reported. A test could come as soon as next month, when Kim Jong Un is preparing to mark to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of his grandfather, state founder Kim Il Sung, the paper said, citing a security official it did not identify.
The reports came as Kim delivered a fresh warning to the U.S. that he planned to develop more “powerful striking capabilities,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday. The weapons would make North Korea more secure and “control all threats and blackmail by the imperialists,” it reported him as saying.
