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US detects North Korea’s nuclear test preparation

* Rice says US has ‘significant’ deterrent capability against Korea

SEOUL: US intelligence has detected the movement of heavy equipment in North Korea that points to possible preparations for an underground nuclear test, a South Korean newspaper said on Tuesday.

The influential Chosun Ilbo, quoting a government source, said US spy satellites had captured frequent movements of trucks in the north-eastern region of Kilju, as well as the movement of cranes and other heavy equipment into the area.

“US intelligence authorities believe the images and other information point to preparations for a possible underground nuclear test,” the source was quoted as saying.

US and Japanese news reports last week said Washington had warned some governments and agencies that North Korea could be preparing for a test, which would represent a serious escalation of tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

US and South Korean officials have since denied there were definitive signs of an imminent test. On Tuesday Seoul shot down the latest report, with Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-ung telling reporters before a cabinet meeting there were no unusual indications in the area.

A Defence Ministry official told Reuters there also was no foundation to the Chosun Ilbo report that the US intelligence was passed on to the South Korean government. He said a project to dig a tunnel had been detected in the same area in the late 1990s and the two countries had been watching it closely, without any sign of preparations for a test.

“It is not clear what the purpose of the tunnel is,” the official added. A South Korean official told Reuters on Monday that although there were no indications of an imminent nuclear test, the possibility was constantly in the minds of regional powers trying to put a stop to Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes.

Deterrent capability: The United States has “significant deterrent capability” to thwart North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Monday as the White House called a weekend missile test by Pyongyang “provocative.”

Rice told reporters, after talks here with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, that “the United States maintains significant, I want to underline significant, deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region.

“So I don’t think there should be any doubt about our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to,” she said.

The short-range missile launched off North Korea’s east coast came a day before the opening of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York and as Pyongyang stepped up its war of words with the United States. agencies

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