Japan has confirmed vehicle activity at a North Korean nuclear testing site, but it was unclear whether tests were imminent, wire news services reported yesterday.
Vehicles have been seen entering and leaving a nuclear testing site in the northeast of the country, the Associated Press quoted a Kyodo news agency as reporting.
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But he said Seoul sees a nuclear test only as a possibility for now. ``At the current stage, it looks to be a matter of possibility,¡¯¡¯ he said during a weekly press briefing. ``We are consulting with related countries on the North's move, while keeping a close eye on it.''
News reports last week quoted U.S. officials as saying there was activity at a possible nuclear site in the North suggesting that preparations for a nuclear weapons test were underway.
Read the storyNorth Korea stands by attack threat
23 August 2006
SEOUL: North Korea said it had the right to launch a pre-emptive attack to counter a US-South Korean joint military training drill, its official media reported on Tuesday.
US and South Korean troops began military exercises on Monday, dubbed Ulchi Focus Lens, that are aimed at testing command structures and communications.
The annual exercises have been held without incident since they began in 1975 and the North usually brands them as a prelude to invasion and nuclear war.
But the drills this year are being held with tensions high on the peninsula after North Korea test-fired a barrage of missiles on July 5 and reports last week it may preparing to test a nuclear weapon.
Read this articleN Korea watching U.S., Japan
"We will keenly watch the moves of the United States and its followers including Japan to stifle the DPRK with sharp vigilance and do our utmost to bolster our self-defensive war deterrent, unhindered by anything, tightly holding the revolutionary banner of Songun, thus adding shine to the ever-victorious history of the Korean revolution covering centuries," he was quoted as saying.
What a quote!