North Korea is preparing for another nuclear test in a few months, South Korean authorities said on Saturday. The South Korean officials reportedly detected activity in the North Korean atomic installations which gave them the cue.
Seoul's National Intelligence Service (INS) has observed the movement of humans and vehicles at Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site in North Korea where the Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-Un's regime conducted its last two nuclear tests this year in January and again in September, according to Yonhap News Agency.
NIS head Lee Byoung-ho said that Pyongyang is currently preparing to conduct another nuclear test at any moment and that that the nation is just waiting for an appropriate political situation regarding South Korea and the United States.
The former number two diplomat in Pyongyang's delegation in London, Thae Yong-ho, on Saturday told the committee that Kim Jong-Un's regime is gearing up to conduct another nuclear test, probably around the South Korean presidential elections which are scheduled to be held in 2017. Thae came to South Korea in August becoming the highest ranking officer to cross over from North Korea. Pyongyang has described Thae as a criminal for defecting to the southern country.
North Korea, this year, conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests despite several warnings and sanctions from various countries and international organisations including the US and the United Nations. The country had previously conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. It also frequently launches medium-range ballistic missiles and submarines from time to time.
The United Nations Security Council, early this month, had imposed its toughest sanctions against North Korea in an attempt to deter the defiant nation from conducting nuclear missile tests.
The resolution for new sanctions against the nation came at least three months after it secretly conducted its fifth nuclear test. The resolution headed by the US was ultimately passed by a 15-0 vote after tough negotiations with fellow council member China.
The sanctions will put a cap on North Korea's main coal exports, the nation's main external revenue source. The resolution drawn by the nations require North Korea to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs."
