By Jun Ji-hye
There are no indications that North Korea intends to conduct a fourth nuclear test any time soon, although the repressive state threatened to do so in protest against the adoption of a resolution last month by a United Nations' committee, a U.S. think tank said Wednesday.
The website 38 North said that commercial satellite imagery shows there has been "low-level activity" at the North's Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site for the past four months.
"It is unlikely that North Korea will conduct a nuclear test in the next two to three months," 38 North stated in a report.
Nuclear tests were previously conducted at the site in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
The U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee passed a resolution on Nov. 18 calling for the referral of North Korea to the International Criminal Court for state-perpetrated violations of human rights.
Pyongyang strongly reacted against the move, threatening to test a nuclear device.
Speculation also abounded early this year that the isolated state might carry out a fourth experiment after it threatened a "new form of nuclear test."
Meanwhile, a renowned U.S. nuclear scientist, Siegfried Hecker, said Wednesday that Pyongyang will possess some 20 nuclear bombs by 2016, and it could conduct several rounds of detonation tests to miniaturize nuclear warheads.
"North Korea is presumed to have the capability of producing some four nuclear bombs per year, and it appears that the North will possess some 20 nuclear bombs by 2016," Hecker was quoted as saying by Rep. Yoo Ki-june of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Hecker is a research professor at Stanford University who visited the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex in 2010. He visited Seoul to participate in the 13th Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum Thursday.
Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye
There are no indications that North Korea intends to conduct a fourth nuclear test any time soon, although the repressive state threatened to do so in protest against the adoption of a resolution last month by a United Nations' committee, a U.S. think tank said Wednesday.
The website 38 North said that commercial satellite imagery shows there has been "low-level activity" at the North's Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site for the past four months.
"It is unlikely that North Korea will conduct a nuclear test in the next two to three months," 38 North stated in a report.
Nuclear tests were previously conducted at the site in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
The U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee passed a resolution on Nov. 18 calling for the referral of North Korea to the International Criminal Court for state-perpetrated violations of human rights.
Pyongyang strongly reacted against the move, threatening to test a nuclear device.
Speculation also abounded early this year that the isolated state might carry out a fourth experiment after it threatened a "new form of nuclear test."
Meanwhile, a renowned U.S. nuclear scientist, Siegfried Hecker, said Wednesday that Pyongyang will possess some 20 nuclear bombs by 2016, and it could conduct several rounds of detonation tests to miniaturize nuclear warheads.
"North Korea is presumed to have the capability of producing some four nuclear bombs per year, and it appears that the North will possess some 20 nuclear bombs by 2016," Hecker was quoted as saying by Rep. Yoo Ki-june of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Hecker is a research professor at Stanford University who visited the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex in 2010. He visited Seoul to participate in the 13th Korea-U.S. West Coast Strategic Forum Thursday.
Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye
