(Photo : JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)
A senior South Korean official claims that North Korea is increasingly aiming its nuclear program toward the South and has appealed to China and Russia to convince the North to halt the widely anticipated nuclear test.
Kwon Young-se, the newly appointed unification minister of South Korea, claims that North Korea is prepared to carry out its first nuclear test in five years.
At a conference for international media conducted on Monday in Seoul, he stated, "Everything is ready; the only thing left is a political decision."
The regime has apparently finished all the preparations for the nuclear test, which would be its seventh overall, but has not yet conducted it. The dictatorship began speeding its missile program in January, as per The Straits Times.
North Korea's Nuclear Test Delayed Due to COVID-19 Outbreak
Some experts theorized that the test's postponement was caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea, which has so far been linked to 4.72 million cases, while others blamed the monsoon season for the delay.
The first nuclear test by Pyongyang took place in October 2006, and further ones were carried out in May 2009, February 2013, January 2016, September 2016, and September 2017. The much-discussed seventh test has yet to take place, according to Kwon, who entered office three days after Yoon Suk-yeol's May 10 inauguration. Kwon said that "it is unclear to us" why this hasn't happened yet.
Kwon said the Yoon government is still studying the specifics of its North Korea strategy but that "sudden change is not ideal" and compared ties between South Korea and the North to a "long relay race."
The historic first meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former American president Donald Trump, which took place in Singapore in 2018, was facilitated by former liberal president Moon Jae-in, who was pro-engagement.
Since the second Trump-Kim summit collapsed in 2019 over disagreements on sanctions relief and denuclearization stages, negotiations have stagnated.
South Korea Asks China, Russia To Convince North
Per ABC News, a senior South Korean official claimed on Monday that North Korea is increasingly aiming its nuclear program at the South and pleaded with China and Russia to pressure the North to postpone the widely anticipated nuclear test.
After North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reiterated his nuclear aspirations at a crucial military summit last week and authorized vague new operational responsibilities for front-line army units, Unification Minister Kwon Youngse made his remarks.
According to experts, North Korea may have plans to place nuclear weapons near its tense border with South Korea. North Korea has spent a significant portion of the last three years increasing its arsenal of short-range solid-fuel missiles, which could be used to evade missile defenses and strike targets throughout South Korea, including US bases there.
This has occurred during a protracted standoff in nuclear diplomacy.
According to US and South Korean sources, North Korea has nearly finished preparing for its first nuclear test since it claimed to have exploded an intercontinental ballistic missile warhead in September 2017.
North Korea may use its next nuclear test to claim that it has acquired the ability to build small nuclear warheads that can be placed on short-range missiles or other new weapons systems it has demonstrated in recent months, analysts say.
If war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea now has a "far higher possibility to utilize its tactical nuclear weapons on a battlefield," according to Kim Yeol Soo, a specialist at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs in South Korea.
The arsenal that would presumably be stationed at the border includes some of North Korea's more portable, solid-fueled, short-range missiles that have been tested since the failure of nuclear negotiations with the United States in 2019.
North Korea has referred to those missiles as "tactical" weapons, meaning that it intends to equip them with lower-yield nuclear warheads. Foreign analysts claim that these missiles may be able to dodge South Korean and US missile defenses, according to Washington Times.
The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons by North Korea could occur at any time, according to Kim Taewoo, the former director of the Seoul-based, state-funded Korean Institute for National Unification. Kim Taewoo believes North Korea has likely already acquired the technology to equip its missiles with nuclear warheads.
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