17 April 2016•Update: 22 April 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
North Korea appears set to carry out a fifth ever nuclear test in the near future, according to South Korean officials Sunday.
Despite being hit with strengthened sanctions by the United Nations Security Council following what Pyongyang claimed was a hydrogen bomb test in January, the North has been openly pursuing its nuclear weapon ambitions.
A significant spike in activity detected at the country’s Punggye-ri complex can be viewed as “a convincing sign” that another nuclear test is likely before early May, based on the conclusion of Seoul government sources cited by local news agency Yonhap.
Evidence backing the claim includes increased movement of vehicles and personnel around one of the complex’s tunnels.
The forecast, however, is also supported by a general expectation that Pyongyang is planning another major provocation to make a political statement ahead of next month’s Workers’ Party congress -- the first of its kind in nearly four decades.
The North could be further spurred on by widespread reports that it failed with an attempted medium-range rocket launch last Friday, the birthday of the authoritarian nation’s late founder Kim Il-sung.
One of North Korea’s most recent statements attempted to justify its nuclear development, which has also involved multiple missile launches and an apparent warhead breakthrough in recent weeks.
A report out of Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency Saturday insisted that the North’s “access to nuclear weapons is not a threat but an inevitable self-defensive option for protecting the country and nation from the nuclear disaster to be brought by the U.S.”
The United States does have nearly 30,000 military personnel stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, but Washington and Seoul maintain that their alliance is defensive.
