North Korea has the ability to test another nuclear warhead at any time, a South Korean official has warned. The nuclear test was believed to be the largest carried out so far and has prompted the worldwide community to consider its response.
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“We assess that (North Korea) is prepared for a nuclear test in another shaft”, Defense Minister Han Min-koo told lawmakers Friday.
Following Obama’s speech, in which he maintained that the U.S. would never accept North Korea as a nuclear state, Pyongyang hit out at the soon-to-be former president. “The Alliance is taking steps each and every day to defend the Republic of Korea and we are always maintaining a high state of readiness”, the spokesman said.
The ministry insisted that North Korea will continue to increase its nuclear force in quality and quantity, adding that this was necessary to “safeguard the dignity” and “right to exist” of the DPRK.
In August, the U.S. Air Force forward deployed the B-1B bomber in the U.S. Pacific Command’s Andersen Air Force Base on Guam partly to better counter the North’s nuclear and missile threats.
Following North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Kim Jong Un’s regime is ready to conduct another nuclear test any time.
Moon refused to say what specific evidence pointed to another possible North Korea test. In a personal dig at Obama, the Foreign Ministry attacked the president’s “bankrupt DPRK policy”.
The official however declined to name the bomber’s type or the fleet’s size would be.
A South Korean army’s K1 tank moves during an annual exercise in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016.
Under the 32-year-old, who took over control of the isolated state after the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011, North Korea has sped up its nuclear weapons programme despite United Nations economics sanctions being tightened in March.
President Barack Obama said the US would never accept North Korea as a nuclear power.
But Yonhap news agency, citing unidentified Seoul government sources, reported Monday there were signs the North had finished test preparations at one tunnel that has never been used.
It said the United States was “the root cause” of the issue. But the scheduled flight was delayed to Tuesday due to unfavorable weather conditions, according to the USFK.
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A group of 31 South Korean conservative lawmakers said the country should have nuclear weapons, either by acquiring its own arms or asking the Americans to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons that were withdrawn from the South under a 1991 pact for the denuclearization of the peninsula.
