SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea vowed to push ahead with its nuclear program because of what it called U.S. hostility, even as an outside analysis of satellite images suggests the nation has accelerated work at its nuclear-test site over the past month.
North Korea’s statement, released Tuesday by an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman, came a day after a senior U.S. envoy met with high-ranking South Korean and Japanese envoys in Seoul and warned the North that an atomic test would unify the world in seeking swift, tough punishment.
North Korea made no direct threat of a nuclear test and said it is open to dialogue to resolve the nuclear standoff. An analyst, Koh Yu-hwan at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said the Foreign Ministry statement was a message that “the U.S. should come to the dialogue table [with North Korea] if it wants to stop its nuclear test.”
There has been widespread worry that North Korea may follow a failed April 13 long-range rocket test with a third nuclear test. Both of its previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, followed rocket launches.
Late Tuesday, Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korea, told reporters in Beijing, where he is meeting with Chinese counterparts to discuss the North Korean nuclear situation, that he hadn’t had a chance to study the North’s latest statement but that his initial sense was that it is consistent with past statements.
Satellite images taken by DigitalGlobe and GeoEye in the past month show heightened activity at the Punggyeri nuclear test site in North Korea’s northeast, including mining carts, excavation equipment and a large amount of debris taken from inside a tunnel and piled around its entrance, said James Hardy, IHS Jane’s Asia-Pacific specialist. The most recent image was from May 9.
South Korean intelligence officials said last month that satellite images showed North Korea was digging a new tunnel in what appears to be preparation for another nuclear test at the site. A new tunnel is likely needed because existing ones probably caved in and became contaminated with radioactive material after previous tests.
Other satellite images have indicated upgrades to a rocket launch site in North Korea’s secretive northeast.
The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said the images show North Korea is upgrading the Musudan-ri site to handle larger rockets, like space-launch vehicles and intercontinental missiles. The upgrade began last summer, the institute said, and reflects North Korean determination to expand its rocket program.
At the current pace of construction, the facilities should be operational by 2016-17, the institute said.
“This major upgrade program, designed to enable Musudan-ri to launch bigger and better rockets far into the future, represents both a significant resource commitment and an important sign of North Korea’s determination,” said Joel Wit, editor of the institute’s website, 38 North.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who took power in December after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, has vowed to place top priority on his impoverished country’s military.
“It is very important that North Korea not miscalculate again and engage in any future provocation,” Davies told reporters earlier at the South Korean Foreign Ministry. “If they make the right choices, there can be a different future for North Korea.”
Another nuclear test, however, would result in “swift and sure” punishment at the U.N. Security Council, he said.
North Korea announced its planned rocket launch just two weeks after it had struck a food aid-for-nuclear freeze deal with Washington — the result of months of tedious, back-and-forth negotiations that was seen as something of a breakthrough at the time.
Washington and other nations called the April rocket launch a cover for a test of missile technology that could be used to attack the United States — and therefore a violation of the U.S.-North Korea deal. North Korea said the rocket, which broke into pieces over the Yellow Sea shortly after liftoff, was meant to send an observational satellite into orbit.
“If the U.S. persists in its moves to ratchet up sanctions and pressure upon us despite our peace-loving efforts, we will be left with no option but to take countermeasures for self-defense,” the North’s Foreign Ministry statement said.
Information for this article was contributed by Hyung-jin Kim, Alexa Olesen and Matthew Pennington of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 05/23/2012