(Seoul) North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear test, Seoul and Washington said on Thursday, while the United States warned that this could happen during US President Joe Biden’s visit to South Korea this week.
Posted at 6:48 p.m.
Mr Biden’s first visit to the region looks set to be overshadowed by growing North Korea.
Despite the recent Kovid-19 wave in North Korea, “preparations for the nuclear test are complete and they are only looking for the right time to carry it out,” MK Ha Tae-king told reporters, citing Seoul National Intelligence Service information. .
According to U.S. intelligence, his administration said there was a “real possibility” that North Korea would choose “provocative” action after Joe Biden arrived in Seoul late Friday.
This could mean “new missile test, long-range missile test, or nuclear test or both,” Mr Biden said before or during his visit to the region, White National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. House.
Satellite imagery indicates that North Korea is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test, including a record number of tests this year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
“North Korea wants to draw world attention by conducting a nuclear test during President Biden’s visit to South Korea and Japan,” Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for Nuclear Studies told AFP. North Korea from the Sejong Institute in Seoul.
Mr Biden, who is visiting about 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, is ready to “adjust” to the American military posture in the region, and Seoul’s new president, Eun Suk-yol, is interested. Strengthen bonds.
Biden and Yoon both said they were ready for talks with Pyongyang but hoped for real progress on nuclear disarmament. ”
Biden ruled that the North Korea issue could not be resolved through surprise meetings between leaders like Trump, “said Wu Jung-yep, a researcher at the Sejong Institute in Seoul.
‘No way’ to stop it
Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korea Studies said that North Korea would closely follow the results of Saturday’s UN-Biden summit, “depending on the outcome, North Korea will decide whether or not to accelerate its nuclear and ICBM tests.”
Kim Jong-un is well aware of the stalemate in the UN Security Council after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and there is a possibility of a nuclear or ICBM test during Biden’s trip to Asia, adds Chiong Seong-chang.
Moscow is likely to thwart a UN attempt to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang after a weapons test.
Under international sanctions, North Korea has dramatically increased its missile tests this year, ignoring US negotiations.
The country ceased firing and nuclear testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2017. He had already partially broken this temporary ban by firing an intercontinental ballistic missile in late March.
Negotiations have stalled since the failed Trump-Kim summit in 2019, and Kim Jong-un recently announced his intention to build his nuclear arsenal “as soon as possible.”
Responsibility for the situation has been partly attributed to “strategic negligence” by North Korean President Biden, said Professor Park van-gon at Eva University in Seoul.
“Now there is no way to really stop North Korea,” he added.
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