South Korea’s Minister of Defense Lee Jong-sup warned on Thursday that North Korea has “completed preparations for what would be its seventh nuclear test, and is capable of carrying out a nuclear test at any time.”
The development comes amid mock nuclear strike drills by North Korea over the past several weeks, which they say is in direct response to joint United States- South Korean military drills on the peninsula. Recent tests included what North Korean state media described as a nuclear armed underwater drone, which may be used to carry out their seventh nuclear test.
On Thursday, North Korean state media outlet KCNA accused the United States of inflaming “reckless military confrontational hysteria” that is “driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to an irreversible catastrophe … to the brink of a nuclear war.”
