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North Korea 'ready' to test a nuclear weapon, claims South Korean prime minister
North Korea: The comments come at a time when tensions on the Korean Peninsula are as high as they've been for several years.
North Korea is "ready" to test a nuclear weapon and will likely do so, South Korea prime minister Han Duck-soo said. The South Korean premier said that although it is "hard to know exactly when" a test would happen, "we gather that they are prepared", Sky News reported.
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The comments come at a time when tensions on the Korean Peninsula are as high as they've been for several years. If a nuclear test is undertaken, it will be the first since 2017 and will be a major escalation at an already very tense time. South Korean prime minister also said China's recent relaxation of its strict zero Covid rules "should have come sooner" and said he'd like to see its powerful neighbour become "more rules-based".
South Korean prime minister Han's statements about North Korea come in the closing weeks of a year that has seen North Korea fire more missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, than at any other time since leader Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011.
"We always have preparations for that kind of very undesirable action," the South Korean prime minister said.
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“We cannot say at this moment what kind of response will be made.But clearly we would like to have some kind of extended deterrence capabilities, including all kind of options,” he added.
North Korea has implied it is responding, in part, to large-scale joint military drills held last month between South Korea and the United States, action it sees as threatening and provocative.
“You may call our strengthening our deterrence capabilities the 'harder line,' but that's a natural course for any country increasing the level of self-reliance in terms of security. We will secure our peace on our terms, not on terms dictated by North Korea,” South Korean prime minister added.
