North Koreans play volleyball at nuclear test site

Amid rising tensions over North Korea's weapons program, satellite images appear to show a volleyball match taking place at the country's main nuclear test site.

According to the Washington Post, the satellite company Digitalglobe captured the above images and they were later released by the organization specializing in monitoring the situation in North Korea 38 North. The images show groups of people playing volleyball at three separate locations at the top-secret nuclear facility Punggye-ri.

New satellite image of Punggye-ri Test Site. (Photo: 38 North)

Experts at 38 North were surprised, as they had previously agreed with speculation that North Korea was about to test a nuclear weapon.

On April 19, three experts Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., Jack Liu and Frank Pabian of 38 North posted a message saying that activities at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site appeared to be slowing down after 2 months of escalation.

They admitted that it was not just volleyball, the North Koreans also appeared to no longer be pumping water out of tunnels once used for weapons testing, while vehicles and trailers near the entrances appeared to have been moved.

New satellite image of Punggye-ri test site. (Photo: 38 North)

However, the exact status of the Punggye-ri test site remains unclear. The 38 North team of experts said that two possible explanations for this are that the test site has been put into “backup” mode, allowing for leisure time; or that Pyongyang is trying to fool outsiders by using various tricks, including organizing volleyball games there.

Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in North Korea, along with basketball, soccer, and table tennis. Both North Korean men and women enjoy playing these sports.

According to Vietnamnet