South Korea’s military intelligence warns North Korea poised to conduct nuclear and ICBM tests

North Korea has likely completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test and appears to be preparing to test a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, South Korea’s military intelligence agency told MPs.

In a closed-door hearing on Wednesday, the agency also said some advance units of North Korean troops sent to Russia might have arrived at battlefronts as the forces prepare to move to the Kursk region, where Russia has struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion, according to two MPs who attended the meeting.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told The Associated Press earlier in October he expected North Korea to stage major provocations such as nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests about the time of the US election to dial up pressure on Washington and its allies.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has also flaunted his military nuclear program in recent months, testing various missile systems and disclosing a secretive facility for producing weapons-grade uranium in September.

The agency believes that North Korea has finished preparations to conduct a nuclear test at its testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri, with the detonation likely to be carried out at tunnel No.3, said Lee Seong-kweun, one of the MPs who attended the hearing.

North Korea conducted its sixth and last nuclear test in 2017.

The agency also said it’s detecting signs, including the placement of launch vehicles, that the North is preparing to test-launch an ICBM designed to reach the US mainland, said Lee and Park Sun-won, another MP.

The agency believes the ICBM test could take place in November.

“We cannot specify the exact location but the transporter-erector launcher has been deployed at a certain area where it could be anticipated that an ICBM test aimed at verifying atmospheric re-entry technology could be conducted,” Lee said.

All of North Korea’s ICBM tests since 2017 have been conducted at a high angle to avoid the territory of neighbours.

Experts have said the North might eventually seek to flight test its weapons at an angle closer to a normal ballistic trajectory to verify whether the warhead would survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened since 2022 after Kim used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the growth of his nuclear weapons and missile program.