In the latest sign that North Korea could be preparing to resume major weapons tests, satellite imagery has shown construction at its nuclear testing site for the first time since it was closed in 2018.
Imagery taken Friday of the country’s Punggye-ri facility shows “very early signs” of activity at the site, including construction of a new building, repair of another and what is possibly some lumber and sawdust, analysts at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) said in a report.
"North Korea uses a substantial amount of wood at the site both for buildings and shoring up tunnels. These changes have occurred only in the past few days," Jeffrey Lewis, a U.S. nuclear expert and CNS professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, wrote in an analysis Monday of the commercial satellite photos.