SEOUL, August 22. /TASS/. North Korean officials may time Pyongyang's next nuclear tests to coincide with US Congressional midterm elections in November, former Director of South Korean National Intelligence Service Park Jie-won said in an interview with the KBS radio station on Monday.
"They will definitely hold nuclear tests before the American midterm elections in November. Only by using tests, can North Korea show the world that its technologies have advanced," the former intelligence head (served from July 2020 to May 2022) specified.
"They can do this to showcase the threat that their missile with a miniaturized and lighter warhead may reach the continental United States and thus deliver a blow [to the political positions] of Joe Biden’s administration before the midterm elections," he explained.
Speaking of US-South Korea joint drills which kicked off on Monday, the ex-intelligence chief asserted that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un won’t "pretend as if nothing happened." In North Korea, such military exercises are viewed as a "war rehearsal." According to Park Jie-won, Pyongyang may "stage a provocation" in order to demonstrate its protest against Seoul’s and Washington’s drills.
In order to obtain Pyongyang’s consent to the initiative of the current South Korean administration which is offering economic aid in exchange for dropping the development of nuclear weapons, Park Jie-won suggested launching backroom negotiations with the North Korean leadership.
US and South Korean officials have been insisting for several months already that the North Korean authorities had completed preparations for new nuclear tests.