The Punggye-ri nuclear test site is reportedly "primed and ready" for another nuclear test, however, North Korea has provided no specific indications that it intends to conduct a test in the immediate future.
After eight weeks of nearly continuous activity at the Punggye-Ri site, where satellite images have shown trucks coming and going, and barrels lined up outside buildings, three volleyball games were apparently played, analysts said Wednesday.
The status of the test site remained unclear, experts Joseph S. Bermudez Jr, Jack Liu and Frank Pabian said.
At a time of remarkable tensions over Pyongyang's weapons program, satellite images of North Korea appeared to capture images of multiple volleyball games being played at the country's main nuclear testing site. The North Korean women's volleyball team won bronze medals twice in the 1972 Olympics and the 1970 Women's World Championship, though they have rarely qualified for either event since.
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"Personnel playing volleyball at the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility have also been identified on a number of occasions as far back as 2006 prior to the first nuclear test and more recently in February", it said.
The North Korea monitoring website 38 North, however, released a report on Wednesday saying it had seen "little activity" at the site.
The agency notes that this would be the first time that three games at the same location had been recorded.
There had been speculation that leader Kim Jong-un could order a nuclear test to coincide with celebrations to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founding president, Kim Il-sung, last Saturday.
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