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| North Korea Has Completed Nuclear Test Preparations |
Seoul - South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said North Korea had completed preparations for a nuclear test. The situation has fueled fears that Pyongyang will detonate its first nuclear device in five years in the near future. "We judge that they have completed preparations for the seventh nuclear test," Yeol told South Korea's parliament as reported by Bloomberg, Tuesday (10/25/2022).
He added that Kim Jong-un's regime had defended the preemptive use of nuclear weapons. The United States, South Korea and Japan have all promised harsh and unified penalties for North Korea's nuclear test, which would violate United Nations Security Council resolutions.
President Joe Biden's National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, told reporters in Washington that the United States believed that North Korea could conduct a nuclear test at any time. The US push to isolate Russia over Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, coupled with growing hostility towards China, has allowed Kim Jong-un to strengthen his nuclear deterrent without fearing more sanctions at the UN Security Council.
There is virtually no chance Russia or China, which has a veto power in the council, will support any action against North Korea, as they did in 2017 after a series of weapons tests that prompted former President Donald Trump to warn of "fire and fury."
Kim Jong-un, who last launched a nuclear device in 2017, may want to carry out tests to improve his country's ability to shrink warheads to fit new missiles designed to attack South Korea and Japan, which host the bulk of American troops in Asia. The young North Korean dictator also wants to increase the power of nuclear devices that will be mounted on long-range rockets designed to hit the US mainland.