North Korea watchers said they had observed unusual activity at the reclusive country’s nuclear test site — workers playing volleyball.The 38 North monitoring group said satellite imagery captured on Sunday showed personnel at the guard barracks and two other areas at the Punggyeri test site playing the popular game.
“It suggests the facility might be going into a standby mode,” said Joseph Bermudez, a North Korea expert and an analyst for the Washington-based 38 North. “It also suggests these volleyball games are being conducted with the North Koreans knowing we will be looking and reporting on it. They are either sending us a message that they have put the facility on standby, or they are trying to deceive us.”38 North last week said Punggyeri was ready to conduct its sixth nuclear test, possibly to coincide with last Saturday’s celebrations marking the birthdate of regime founder Kim Il-Sung. That test hasn’t happened yet.
