SEOUL, April 6. /TASS/. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sop said Thursday that according to his estimates the DPRK is ready to conduct another, seventh, nuclear test "at any time."
Speculations intensified again in recent weeks about the DPRK's possible preparations for another nuclear test. Such discussions were prompted by Pyongyang's missile tests in March, including a simulated nuclear explosion involving tactical ballistic missiles, as well as the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's order to increase the production of nuclear materials.
"(North Korea) has already completed preparations for what would be its seventh nuclear test, and is capable of carrying out a nuclear test at any time," Lee told the parliamentary defense committee according to the Yonhap news agency.
The agency also cited the Defense Ministry’s report, submitted to the committee. It noted that North Korea's nuclear test, if pressed ahead, might be designed for "final technological verification" needed for the mass production and operational deployment of nuclear warheads.
The Defense Ministry also said Seoul and Washington had crafted "joint military measures" to respond to a possible North Korean nuclear test with an aim to demonstrate their alliance's "strong" will. The measures include the allies' combined show of force, involving US strategic military assets. It did not elaborate further.
South Korea has been strengthening its monitoring of North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site. Views on the timing of the North's nuclear test vary, the agency remarked. Some said the North "may not conduct a test anytime soon given that it appears to have acquired enough technologies through six nuclear tests," while others said "the regime might see a technological imperative to refine technologies for tactical and other nuclear weapons."
In February 2005, the DPRK declared that it possessed nuclear weapons "intended solely for self-defense and deterrence." On October 9, 2006 it conducted its first underground nuclear test at the Punggye-ri test site in Hamgyong-bukto province (according to Western estimates, its yield was less than one kiloton of TNT). Five more tests followed. The fourth and sixth tests were thermonuclear, Pyongyang said.