The United States assesses that North Korea could be ready as early as this month to conduct its first nuclear test in years at its Punggye-ri test site, State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter said Friday.
"We've shared this information with allies and partners, and we'll continue closely coordinating with them as well," she said, while noting that President Joe Biden intends to demonstrate during his trip to Japan and South Korea later in the month that the U.S. commitment to their security is "ironclad."
The Punggye-ri site, which North Korea insisted it demolished in 2018 to signal its commitment to denuclearization at that time, is being prepared for a possible seventh nuclear test and the U.S. assessment is "consistent" with Pyongyang's recent public statements, Porter said.
North Korea hinted in January this year that it could resume nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, neither of which had been conducted since 2017. It then launched an ICBM in March.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also recently said his country will bolster its development of nuclear weapons at a faster pace and "pre-emptively" use them if necessary, according to state-run media.
In April 2018, North Korea said it had decided to shut down the Punggye-ri site and suspend nuclear and ICBM tests. Underground tunnels and other facilities used for nuclear testing at Punggye-ri were blown up the following month, with Pyongyang insisting the site was "completely" dismantled.
But earlier this year, satellite imagery captured construction occurring at the site, according to nuclear experts.
An image collected in late April also showed workers playing volleyball in a courtyard, as has happened previously at the site during 2017, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. think tank.
North Korea's last nuclear test took place in September 2017, which it claimed was of a hydrogen bomb. The Punggye-ri site in the northeast region is the country's only known nuclear test site.
As North Korea continues its provocative actions, the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned a virtual currency "mixer" allegedly used by Pyongyang to support money-laundering of stolen virtual currency.
It is the first time for Treasury to sanction a virtual currency mixer, which facilitates illicit cryptocurrency transactions such as by obfuscating their origin and destination, the department said. The targeted company is Blender.io.
The sanction blocks the assets held by the blacklisted entity within the United States and prohibits it from engaging in transactions with U.S. citizens.
"Virtual currency mixers that assist illicit transactions pose a threat to U.S. national security interests," Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said, adding that North Korea is resorting to illicit activities to generate revenue for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
In late March, Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group, allegedly carried out the largest virtual currency heist to date, worth almost $620 million, targeting online game Axie Infinity. Blender was used in processing over $20.5 million of the illicit proceeds, according to the department.
Blender receives transactions and "mixes" them together before transmitting them to their ultimate destinations. While the purported purpose is to increase privacy, mixers like Blender are commonly used by illicit actors, the department said in a press release.
An investigation has also identified Blender's facilitation of money-laundering for Russian-linked ransomware groups, it said.
