A BIG bang in the mountains of North Korea, combined with intelligence reports about suspicious activity at other sites, has triggered a fresh bout of nerves about the communist republic鈥檚 nuclear ambitions.
The North Korean government says that the explosion on 9 September near Yongjo-ri, close to the border with China, demolished a mountain to make way for a large hydroelectric scheme. And the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, accepts 鈥渢here was no indication that there was a nuclear event of any kind鈥�.
But speculation that the country could still become the eighth to test a nuclear weapon has been heightened by US satellite surveillance, which has detected movements of materials at other unspecified sites. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 tell whether it鈥檚 normal maintenance activity or something more,鈥� says Powell. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 inconclusive at this moment, but we continue to monitor these things very carefully.鈥�
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North Korea has expelled UN nuclear weapons inspectors, withdrawn from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and has long been suspected of developing nuclear weapons. The explosion follows an admission by South Korea that it had enriched small amounts of uranium to near weapons-grade in laboratory experiments. Inspectors from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency are investigating this work.