SEOUL, January 11. /TASS/. South Korean military forces and US contingent in the country are in full combat readiness following last week’s nuclear test carried out by North Korea, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lee Soon-jin said on Monday.

"After North Korea conducted a nuclear test, its military may stage unexpected provocations," Lee said when visiting the US airbase in Osan with commander of US forces in South Korea Curtis Scaparotti. South Korean and US forces "should be put on full alert in order to counter any provocations by the North, ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," he added.

The report by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that Lee and Scaparotti "confirmed their resolve to deter the North from further provocations."

On January 8 South Korea resumed propagandistic broadcasts on the border with DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). The decision was made in response to the nuclear test conducted by North Korea on January 6 which was a "serious violation" of UN Security Council resolutions adopted earlier, the South Korean defense ministry said.

North Korea announced last Wednesday that it had successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test. The country’s government said in a statement circulated by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the test had had "no adverse impacts on the environmental situation." Now, according to the statement, North Korea "possesses the strongest deterrent forces."

North Korea previously conducted three nuclear tests: in 2006, in 2009 and in 2013. Following these tests, the United Nations Security Council imposed various sanctions on Pyongyang. In the past two years, North Korea refrained from nuclear tests limiting itself to ballistic missile launches as a response to the US-South Korea large-scale military drills.