SEOUL — North Korea warned on Monday that it will carry out a nuclear test “at any time and at any location” set by its leadership, in the latest rhetoric to fuel jitters in the region.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high for weeks, with signs that the North might be preparing a long-range missile launch or a sixth nuclear test — and with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike in response.
A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said Pyongyang was “fully ready to respond to any option taken by the US.”
The regime will continue bolstering its “preemptive nuclear attack” capabilities unless Washington scrapped its hostile policies, he said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.
“The DPRK’s measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership,” the spokesman added, apparently referring to a sixth nuclear test and using the North’s official name, the Democratic Republic of Korea.
The North has carried out five nuclear tests in the last 11 years and is widely believed to be making progress toward its dream of building a missile capable of delivering a warhead to the continental United States.
It raises the tone of its warnings every spring, when Washington and Seoul carry out joint exercises it condemns as rehearsals for invasion, but this time fears of conflict have been fuelled by a cycle of threats from both sides.
The joint drills have just ended, but naval exercises are continuing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) with a US strike group led by the aircraft carrier US Carl Vinson.
The Pyongyang foreign ministry spokesman said if the North was not armed with “the powerful nuclear force,” Washington would have “committed without hesitation the same brigandish aggression act in Korea as what it committed against other countries.”
The statement reasserts the North’s long-running rhetoric on its military capabilities.
Meanwhile, America’s CIA director is making an unannounced visit to South Korea, the US Embassy in Seoul confirmed on Monday, amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
An embassy official said Mike Pompeo and his wife were in the South Korean capital on Monday, but wouldn’t say for how long. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
South Korean media reports said the CIA chief arrived in South Korea over the weekend for meetings with the head of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and high-level officials in the presidential office.
The US official, however, wouldn’t confirm any meetings beyond ones with officials at US Forces in Korea and the US Embassy.
The visit comes after North Korea conducted another missile test on Saturday, and a US aircraft carrier group was in nearby waters. A Japanese destroyer left port on Monday, reportedly to escort US naval ships as Japan increases its military role in the region. — Agencies
