N Korea ‘readies for nuclear test’

[Volpis]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called on the country's military to "bolster up their strength in every way to annihilate the enemy", state media reported yesterday, as new satellite imagery showed increased preparations for a possible nuclear test. Last month North Korea resumed testing its largest ICBMs, and there are signs it could soon test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017. "Current satellite imagery indicates that preparations are well underway and should not be discounted as insignificant activity," the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report on Thursday. Analysts and South Korean and US officials have said that the North appears to be restoring Tunnel No. 3 at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, used for underground nuclear blasts before it was closed in 2018 amid denuclearisation talks with Washington and Seoul.