North Korea is getting ready to conduct a fourth nuclear test to respond to policies of the United States, according to details from South Korea’s spy agency published by the Yonhap news agency.
USA Today reported:
The North is getting ready to conduct the test because of what it says are the confrontational policies of the United States and its allies, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Yonhap reported. The spy agency said the test was not imminent. It did not elaborate on the type of test that would be held. North Korea last conducted a nuclear test in 2013. It also held tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing United Nations sanctions.
The news comes about a month after North Korea claimed to have reactivated "normal operation" at its atomic bomb fuel fabrication plants. The country said via state media that plutonium and uranium enrichment facilities located at the Yongbyon fuel fabrication plant had been "rearranged, changed, or readjusted and they started normal operation."
The claims raised suspicion that the country might conduct another nuclear test. North Korea has moved forward with its missile and nuclear programs despite U.N. sanctions and international warnings.
North Korea also said last month that it was prepared to use nuclear weapons against "hostile forces" like the United States.
"If the U.S. and other hostile forces persistently seek their reckless hostile policy towards the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and behave mischievously, the DPRK is fully ready to cope with them with nuclear weapons any time," director of the North Korean Atomic Energy Institute said in statement.
Though North Korea indicated in September that it would conduct a long-range rocket launch to honor the 70th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) on Oct. 10, the country never followed through.