http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15220740%255E2703,00.html
Tunnel 'not for N Korea nuclear test'
AFP
May 09, 2005
SEOUL: South Korean officials have reacted with scepticism to US media
claims that North Korea is preparing an underground nuclear test and
might conduct one as early as June.
The New York Times reported that US officials familiar with satellite
and intelligence data believed Pyongyang was building a reviewing stand
and filling in a tunnel, saying this was a sign of a potential
underground nuclear test.
A senior US intelligence official, who has seen recent satellite images
of Kilchu, in northeast North Korea, told the newspaper that tunnels
for underground nuclear tests differed from those for mines, because
they needed to be plugged up to contain the blast.
But South Korean officials refused to link the tunnel to a possible
nuclear test.
"The South Korean Government has been aware since the late 1990s that a
tunnel was being dug in the area," a senior government official told
the Joongang daily yesterday.
"We have been closely monitoring the work, but there has been no sign
indicating preparations for a nuclear arms test."
Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-Woong said there was no solid information
about the possibility of North Korea preparing for a nuclear test.
And a military intelligence official said Kilchu was inhabited by a
considerable number of people, who would be exposed to fallout from any
nuclear test.
He noted that in August 1998, US media revealed military intelligence
findings based on satellite photos that North Korea was constructing a
tunnel at Kumchangri, 40km north of the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which
could be a nuclear production and/or storage site.
The Clinton administration responded to the disclosure by persuading
North Korea to allow US inspectors to visit the underground facility in
return for 500,000 tonnes of new US food aid.
The first visit was made in May 1999 and a second in May 2000, and US
officials declared no evidence of nuclear activity was found.
Downplaying the New York Times report, acting US State Department
spokesman Tom Casey said: "We certainly don't have any new assessment
of North Korea's nuclear program."
The international jitters were heightened last Sunday when North Korea
test-fired a short-range missile
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