The director general of the UN nuclear agency, Rafael Grossi, warned on Monday that experts from that entity had observed activities in North Korea that point to the possibility that Pyongyang is preparing a new atomic test.
“We have seen indications that one of the entrances to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site has been reopened, possibly to prepare for a nuclear test,” said the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at the opening of the summer. meeting of the Board of Governors of the body that is part of the United Nations (UN) system.
Carrying out a nuclear test would violate UN Security Council resolutions and would be a matter of great concern,” Grossi added.
North Korea has carried out six nuclear tests, the first in 2006 and the most recent in 2017.
IAEA inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2009 and have since monitored the activities of the North Korean regime through satellite imagery.
Grossi added that North Korea also is carrying out other nuclear activities at the Yongbyon nuclear facilitywhere a 5-megawatt reactor operates and where uranium is enriched, a material for dual civil and military use.
The IAEA leader argued that North Korea should, without delay, resume cooperation with the United Nations agency in the full and effective implementation of its safeguards (controls) agreement under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). , which Pyongyang abandoned in 2003.
It did not start this month, North Korea assumed the monthly and rotating presidency of the UN Disarmament Conference, something that aroused strong criticism due to the arms policy and the tests carried out by the Pyongyang regime, in violation of the international norms of the Council. of security.
North Korea assumes presidency of UN Disarmament Conference under criticism
Source: Observadora
