N. Korea: The Possible Nuclear Test Dates & Sites

Donga Ilbo ^ | 10/05/06 | Ha Tae-won & Youn Sang-ho

[TigerLikesRooster]

/begin my summary

The Possible Test Date

• case 1: within a week (U.S. intelligence estimate, according to the paper)
      candidate:
      Oct 8, the anniversary of Kim Jong-il ascending to General Secretary
      Oct 9, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo visits S. Korea
      Oct 10, the anniversary of N. Korea's ruling Worker's Party's founding
  
  
• case 2: before Nov. 7 but after the dates in case 1)
       N. Korea tries to influence U.S. mid-term election in both case 1) and 2)
       case 1) is obviously more dramatic.
  
  
• case 3: a later date
       it can be postponed if U.S. gives satisfactory responses

The Possible Test Site

In the lower half of the following diagram is the map of possible test sites based on information provided by a S. Korean opposition legislator Song Young-sun, a ranking member at Defense Committee of National Assembly. It is my understanding that these sites are picked because each of them has tunnel(s) whose purpose intelligence agencies were not able to tell. Most of them are said to be horizontal tunnels. A red dot second from the right marks the Kilju, where some activities such as bringing in cables were detected about a month ago. Near the top-center of the map, is Kang-gye, in Jagang Province. Several days ago, there was a report that new tunnels are under construction in nearby Mu-myong Mountains, Shi-jung County. Jagang Province is known to have many first-class underground storage facilities for munitions.

/end my summary

[AmericanInTokyo]

OK, "Constant Phoenix" is UP!! (Kadena AB earlier today):

Joining "Rivet Joint" and others.... (open source)

[AmericanInTokyo]

Go 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #21

For next several days at least, they will live in the air 24 hours a day.:)

[evets]

Thanks for a lovely evening, Kim.

[AmericanInTokyo]

What a traitorous woman.

She'll get hers when Kim Jong il falls and all the inside N. Korean government documents are translated that discuss how the North Koreans rolled Clinton delegation after Clinton delegation that came to Pyongyang.

Those people up there in the DPRK must have thought we were all fools, naive saps.