North Korea may conduct large-scale military exercises and test its newly developed solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as early as this month, South Korean’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told South Korean lawmakers on Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The United States and South Korea have stepped up their joint drills as a defense measure.
The speculation comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there were signs of activity detected at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear testing site, which the regime had previously demolished in 2018 as a sign of its commitment to end nuclear testing.
“The nuclear test site at Punggye-ri remains prepared to support a nuclear test, and we continue to see indications of activity near Adit 3 of the test site,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement on Monday.
“The reopening of the nuclear test site is deeply troubling. The conduct of a nuclear test would contravene U.N. Security Council resolutions and would be a cause for serious concern,” Grossi added.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog observed ongoing activity and construction work at the Yongbyon nuclear facility since November. Grossi said there were indications that the reported centrifuge enrichment facility was in operation.
North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test facility is shown in this DigitalGlobe satellite image in North Hamgyong Province, North Korea, on May 23, 2018. (Satellite image ©2018 DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company/Handout via Reuters)The IAEA has not had access to Yongbyon or other locations in North Korea since the country expelled its inspectors in 2009. It now monitors developments in North Korea’s nuclear program from a distance, including through satellite imagery and open-source information.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to shut down the Yongbyon complex in exchange for sanctions relief following his denuclearization talks with former President Donald Trump in 2019. But the talks eventually stalled.
North Korea conducted a series of missile launches last year, including one involving its largest ICBM, the Hwasong-17, all of which are banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea’s missile program.
The country adopted a new law last year allowing it to conduct a nuclear strike “automatically” against any “hostile forces” posing an imminent threat.
Meanwhile, the NIS said it believes the North Korean leader’s first child is a son who has not made a public appearance, unlike his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, whom Kim has brought to multiple public events.
The spy agency also claimed that Kim has a third child whose gender is unknown, according to Yonhap News Agency.
“We do not have detailed evidence that his first child is a son. But we are convinced that the first child is certainly a son based on intelligence that has been shared with an external intelligence agency,” lawmaker Yoo Sang-beom said of the NIS information.
Kim publicly took his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, to three events in the past few months: a missile launch site, a photo session with weapons scientists, and a touring of a missile facility.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter (R) walk to a photo session with those involved in the recent launch of what it says a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, at an unidentified location in North Korea in an undated photo provided on Nov. 27, 2022. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)State media called her Kim’s “most beloved child,” sparking outside debate over whether she’s being groomed as his heir apparent, though she’s believed to be about 9 or 10 years old.
In its earlier assessment after the daughter’s first appearance in November 2022, the NIS told lawmakers that her unveiling at the missile launch site appeared to reflect Kim’s intentions to protect the security of North Korea’s future generations in the face of a standoff with the United States.
Mimi Nguyen Ly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.