North Korea Reportedly Prepares for a Nuclear Test
Military trucks carry soldiers through central Pyongyang on Thursday as North Korea prepares to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founding father, on Saturday. (Damir Sagolj / Reuters)
Satellite images reportedly show North Korea is preparing to conduct another nuclear test—its sixth—a move that is likely not only to anger its neighbors, but its main ally in China, as well as the Trump administration. A test could come as soon as Saturday, when the North marks the “Day of the Sun,” to commemorate the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, its founder. The North typically carries out such actions—in defiance of international norms—on significant days in its history, but the move also comes after the U.S. ordered an aircraft carrier and warships toward the Korean Peninsula, a show of force that’s also intended to reassure U.S. allies in South Korea and Japan; the two countries are likely to suffer if North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program goes beyond testing mode. In Washington, President Trump, who has criticized China for what he says is its insufficient role in curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, praised the Chinese leadership yesterday. “We have a very big problem in North Korea,” he said. “And, as I said, I really think that China is going to try very hard, and has already started.” That change of heart came apparently after his meeting last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Wednesday, he’d told Xi China could easily solve the North Korea problem. “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” Trump said. “I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power … but it’s not what you would think.” China maintains that its influence on North Korea is limited, and fears any second-order effects on its border should the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un be destabilized.
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