South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol underscored that North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear test "at any time it decides."
"We believe that not only at the end of this month but since my inauguration, it's been fully ready and able to do it whenever it decides," the president told reporters in response to the US Department of Defense's claim that Pyongyang had completed preparations for a nuclear test as soon as this month.
Since Yoon took the office in May, North Korea conducted several short- to long-range missile tests, and is expected to conduct its seventh nuclear test. Previously, Pyongyang urged the US to put itself "on the operating table first" before meddling in the affairs of other countries while concealing its own "ills."