Fears that North Korea will detonate its first nuke of Joe Biden's term are mounting after satellite photos revealed new activity at the site where its weapons are stockpiled.
The secretive state reportedly stashes all its missiles at Yongdoktong, an underground facility in North Pyongan Province accessed via a pair of tunnels.
Up until recently, the tunnel entrances were visible in satellite pictures, allowing international observers to keep tabs on comings and goings from the site.
But now it appears that the Kim regime has erected a new building to hide the entrances, fuelling speculation that the tyrant will soon try to move his nukes unnoticed.
Jeffrey Lewis, an expert in nuclear nonproliferation at Middlebury Institute, said that disguising the tunnel entrances could hide the evidence of an imminent weapons test.
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"There are a number of different facilities at the site," he said. "The most important functions appear to be testing of high-explosives for nuclear weapons primaries and nuclear weapons storage.
"Until recently, this was believed to be North Korea's sole nuclear weapons storage site. It is a core facility for North Korea's nuclear programme.
"North Korea is believed to have about four dozen nuclear weapons, all of which are believed to be stored here."
He continued: "North Korea has now built a structure that obscures a pair of tunnel entrances.
"The new structure is nondescript. It looks like a large building with a pitched roof, although it is in fact a tunnel entrance.
"North Korea may wish to have a covered area where vehicles can park while loading or unloading nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons components.
"Activity at the tunnel entrance might signal an upcoming nuclear test."
The new structure appears to have taken shape over the course of 2020.
Only one year earlier, Kim Jong-un and former President Donald Trump had met in Vietnam to discuss denuclearisation.
A US intelligence source said that the facility was - and continued to be - used for North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"Yongdoktong has been previously identified by US intelligence as a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons storage facility and is still believed to be used for that purpose," they told CNN.
Critics of Joe Biden have used the Maxar footage, captured on February 11, to urge the US President to make clear his plans for dealing with Kim Jong Un going forward.
The administration is currently reviewing US-North Korea policy.
The site appears to have first come on to the radar in the 1990s, when US officials briefed their South Korean and Japanese counterparts about it.
North Korea has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since September 3, 2017.
