N Korean 'test sites' pinpointed

The US and South Korea have pinpointed 11 underground sites in North Korea where a third nuclear test could be conducted, a newspaper has reported ahead of a summit between the two allies on the communist regime's growing atomic threat.

UN Security Council votes to adopt a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea UN Security Council votes to adopt a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea.

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak has left on a trip to Washington for talks with US president Barack Obama, which are expected to be dominated by the North's nuclear and missile programmes.

Tension on the Korean peninsula spiked after North Korea declared on Saturday that it would step up its nuclear bomb-making programme by producing more plutonium and uranium, two key ingredients.

The North also threatened war with any country that tries to stop its ships as part of new UN Security Council sanctions passed in response to Pyongyang's May 25 nuclear test.

North Korea is believed to have enough weaponised plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs, and a US government official said last week that Pyongyang may be preparing for another nuclear test, its third.

"South Korean and US intelligence authorities have spotted 11 key underground facilities in North Korea and embarked on an intensive lookout," South Korea's JongAng Ilbo newspaper reported.

It quoted an unnamed government intelligence official as saying the allies have mobilised spy satellites and human intelligence networks to check for vehicle movements and other unusual activity.

The mobilisation is reportedly based on "intelligence that North Korea can conduct a third nuclear test in protest against the UN Security Council sanctions".

The Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified intelligence official as saying the North may have already built two to three underground test sites near its known Punggye-ri site in the remote north-east, where it conducted its first and second tests. South Korea's defence ministry and national intelligence service said they could not confirm the reports.

North Korea has also been preparing to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States. It says the nuclear and missile programmes are a deterrent against the United States.

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