Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Tunnel 'not for N Korea nuclear test'
AFP
May 09, 2005
SEOUL: South Korean officials have reacted with scepticism to US media claims that North Korea is preparing an underground nuclear test and might conduct one as early as June.

The New York Times reported that US officials familiar with satellite and intelligence data believed Pyongyang was building a reviewing stand and filling in a tunnel, saying this was a sign of a potential underground nuclear test.

A senior US intelligence official, who has seen recent satellite images of Kilchu, in northeast North Korea, told the newspaper that tunnels for underground nuclear tests differed from those for mines, because they needed to be plugged up to contain the blast.

But South Korean officials refused to link the tunnel to a possible nuclear test.

"The South Korean Government has been aware since the late 1990s that a tunnel was being dug in the area," a senior government official told the Joongang daily yesterday.

"We have been closely monitoring the work, but there has been no sign indicating preparations for a nuclear arms test."

Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Woong said there was no solid information about the possibility of North Korea preparing for a nuclear test.

And a military intelligence official said Kilchu was inhabited by a considerable number of people, who would be exposed to fallout from any nuclear test.

He noted that in August 1998, US media revealed military intelligence findings based on satellite photos that North Korea was constructing a tunnel at Kumchangri, 40km north of the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which could be a nuclear production and/or storage site.

The Clinton administration responded to the disclosure by persuading North Korea to allow US inspectors to visit the underground facility in return for 500,000 tonnes of new US food aid.

The first visit was made in May 1999 and a second in May 2000, and US officials declared no evidence of nuclear activity was found.

Downplaying the New York Times report, acting US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "We certainly don't have any new assessment of North Korea's nuclear program."

The international jitters were heightened last Sunday when North Korea test-fired a short-range missile.

AFP



http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15220740%255E2703,00.html