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DPRK preparing for nuke test, but not immediate: Seoul

Xinhua, October 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Preparations by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for another nuclear test has been under way, but there are no signs of an immediate test, South Korea's spy agency said on Tuesday.

The assessment was delivered by two South Korean lawmakers who attended the close-door parliamentary audit of the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

Pyongyang seemed to have prepared for its fourth nuclear test, though not immediately, according to human and technical intelligences collected by the spy agency, local media reported citing the two legislators.

The DPRK conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 each. The latest one was staged just two months after launching a three-stage, Unha-3 rocket, which Seoul sees as a long-range ballistic missile, in December 2012.

Regarding the long-range ballistic missiles, called KN-08, Pyongyang claimed that the KN-08 ballistic missiles are tactical rockets with a rounded tip "loaded with diversified and miniaturized nuclear warheads." Enditem