North Korea vowed on Monday to strengthen its defences amid concerns the country may conduct a nuclear test as a follow-up to last month’s long-range rocket launch.
[…]Quoting South Korean intelligence
sources, local media said Pyongyang warned its main political ally that the underground test would be carried out before January 20.
Since North Korea successfully launched a ballistic missile in December, there has been growing concern that the regime of Kim Jong-un would follow that triumph up with its third nuclear test.
The intention, analysts believe, is to demonstrate that it has the technology
“We have heard that a North Korean official in Beijing told the Chinese side that the North planned to carry out a nuclear test between January 13 and 20,” the South Korean Joongang newspaper quoted an official in Seoul as saying.
“We are now stepping up surveillance of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site,” he said.
North Korea has previously conducted two underground nuclear tests at the site, in 2006 and again in 2009, in defiance of international pressure and sanctions.
Read more at North Korea ‘Preparing New Nuclear Test’
