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North Korea has recently reported that it is speeding up the restoration of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

When the intelligence authorities analyzed the structure of the tunnel being restored, it was found that the purpose of making the nuclear warhead smaller was to strengthen its attack capability against Korea and the United States.



This is the exclusive report by Ayoung Kim.



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Report on pending issues of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee convened on the 28th due to North Korea's ICBM launch.



Unification Minister Lee In-young pointed out the purpose of the test as follows, saying that there is a possibility that North Korea will conduct a seventh nuclear test.

[Lee In- yeong



/Minister of Unification (last 28th): In particular, with regard to nuclear tests, there are still possibilities related to miniaturization and multiple warheads (we are closely watching)]



It is known as a result of analyzing the structure of the burnt tunnel.



A high-ranking government official told SBS reporters, "Punggye-ri Tunnel 3 is narrower than Tunnels 1, 2, and 4 and has a shallower depth from the ground. explained.



Tunnels 3 and 4 are the ones that have never tested a nuclear weapon out of the four tunnels, and North Korea is accelerating recovery in the 3 tunnels.



[Lee Chun-geun / Emeritus Research Fellow, Science and Technology Policy Institute: (Tunnel 3) The depth of the detonation chamber is about 300-400m.

Then the (relatively) low-power one is for testing small nuclear weapons (equivalent to 10-20 kt).

Tunnel 4 is 700-800m long.

So, this is about 150 kt or more (it is possible)]



If North Korea succeeds in making its nuclear warhead small enough to mount on short-range ballistic missiles, the number of nuclear attack methods against South Korea will increase that much.



This high-ranking official also said, "North Korea is developing a multiple warhead with miniaturization, with the aim of simultaneously striking Washington and New York."



The ICBM-class Hwasong-17, which North Korea test-fired on the 16th and exploded in mid-air, has a multiple warhead shape that can launch multiple warheads at once.



(Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)