North Korea 'set for nuclear test'

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ACTIVITY at a North Korean facility suggests Pyongyang could be preparing its first test of a nuclear bomb, US media has cited US officials as saying.

But US officials told Reuters they had no new evidence of such a plan, and a diplomatic official in Seoul familiar with the North's nuclear program said he was sceptical of the reports. {ENDSNIP}
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UPDATE: 5-Oct-2006

From the Asia Times Online

WHACKO Kim's message: War is coming to US soil
By Kim Myong Chol ("Unofficial" spokesman of Kim Dong-il and North Korea.)

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The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced on October 3 that the DPRK planned to conduct a nuclear test. The Foreign Ministry stated that the planned nuclear test was in response to the grave situation created by the US, where "the supreme national security interests
of the DPRK are at stake with the Korean nation standing at the crossroads of life and death".

The nuclear test, once conducted, will have far-reaching implications for the Koreas and the rest of the world. It carries five messages.

The first message is that Kim Jong-il is the greatest of the peerless national heroes Korea has ever produced. ]Kim is unique in that he is the first to equip Korea with sufficient military capability to take the war all the way to the continental US. Under his leadership the DPRK has become a nuclear-weapons state with intercontinental means of delivery. Kim is certainly in the process of achieving the long-elusive goal of neutralizing the American intervention in Korean affairs and bringing together North and South Korea under the umbrella of a confederated state. (

Unlike all the previous wars Korea fought, a next war will be better called the American War or the DPRK-US War because the main theater will be the continental US, with major cities transformed into towering infernos. The DPRK is now the fourth-most powerful nuclear weapons state just after the US, Russia, and China. [ENDSNIP]

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KIM MEETS ARMY COMMANDERS

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, making his first reported public appearance since the Tuesday announcement, held a meeting to rally army commanders on Friday.

But North Korea's official KCNA news agency did not mention preparations for a nuclear test in its report, which said Kim was welcomed "with stormy cheers of hurrah."

The soldiers shouted: "Let's fight at the cost of our lives for the respected supreme commander comrade Kim Jong-il."

TEST ON SUNDAY?
Three senior U.S. officials with access to intelligence told Reuters that U.S. speculation about a possible test centered on Sunday, the anniversary of when Kim became head of the national defense commission in 1997.

They said Pyongyang, which has in the past timed bold actions and announcements to coincide with significant dates, could choose Monday, North Korea Workers' Party Day as well as the U.S. holiday for explorer Christopher Columbus. [ENDSNIP]

Source

UPDATED 01/04/07

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2007 � North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials.

"We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official tells ABC News.

The official cautions that the intelligence is inconclusive on whether North Korea will actually go ahead with another test, but said the preparations are similar to steps taken by Pyongyang before it shocked the world by conducting its first nuclear test on Oct. 9.

Two other senior defense officials confirm that recent intelligence suggests the North Koreans appears to be ready to test a nuclear weapon again, but the intelligence community is divided about whether another test is likely.

"That would surprise me," a senior intelligence official said when asked if North Korea is likely to soon conduct another test.

Another official had a different view, predicting North Korea would conduct a test sometime over the next two or three months.

FROM: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2771492&page=1