North Korea may conduct its seventh nuclear test after the U.S. presidential vote in November, said South Korean lawmakers, citing their country’s spy agency.
“Since North Korea has other options for provocation such as an intercontinental ballistic missile test or launch of a satellite, its nuclear test would be after the U.S. election,” lawmakers Lee Seong-Kweun of the ruling People Power Party and Park Sun-won of the main opposition Democratic Party told parliament, citing the the National Intelligence Service, or NIS.
It would be North Korea’s first nuclear test since 2017. North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. All six have been underground.
The NIS also reported that the North possesses about70 kilograms of plutonium and a significant amount of highly enriched uranium, or HEU, enough to build dozens of nuclear weapons.
On the North’s disclosure of an HEU facility for the first time this month, the NIS said Pyongyang appeared to have the U.S. election in mind, but it could be also trying to “instill confidence” in the domestic audience struggling with a crippled economy.
North Korea unveiled details of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time this month, with leader Kim Jong Un calling for increasing the number of centrifuges for uranium enrichment so it can build up its nuclear arsenal for self-defense.
The North’s state media, in reporting on the facility, did not disclose where it is or say when Kim visited it.
The NIS, however, said the facility that state media reported on was likely to be the Kangson nuclear complex near the capital, Pyongyang, though acknowledging it was hard to give a definite answer, according to the lawmakers.
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The South Korean intelligence agency said the North’s test launch of new tactical ballistic missiles on Sept. 18 was aimed at verifying its precision strike capability.
Calling it a “slight improvement from the past,” the NIS said one of the two missiles fired successfully reached the target, adding that the agency recognized it as a “grave threat” to South Korean security, the legislators said.
The NIS also said that North Korea-Russia relations were “improving and strengthening considerably and continuously” and that it was “watching closely with concerns about Russia’s economic support to North Korea, including the supply of refined oil.”
“We are very concerned and observing technical cooperation such as reconnaissance satellites as a compensation for North Korea’s weapons supply,” said the agency, as cited by the legislators.
On Sino-North Korea relations, the NIS reported that they had “deteriorated a lot.”
“There is a lot of tension between North Korea and China, especially over the crackdown on or replacement of North Korean foreign currency earners operating in China,” the NIS reported, without elaborating.
In August, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson rejected the suggestion that ties with North Korea had cooled.
“Recently some countries and media are suggesting North Korea-China relations are in trouble, and that China and Russia are competing with each other over relations with North Korea, but this is far from the truth,” the Chinese spokesperson said.
“Let me emphasize that both North Korea and Russia are friendly neighbors of China, and China is pleased to see the development of China-Russia relations, which play a constructive role in regional peace and stability,” the spokesperson added.
Edited by Mike Firn.