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| ▲ This photo, taken on Jan. 11, 2024, shows South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik speaking during an interview with Yonhap News Agency at his office in Seoul. (Yonhap) |
N Korea-nuke test possibility
S. Korea not ruling out N.K. nuke test possibility around U.S. presidential election: report
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is not ruling out the possibility of North Korea conducting a nuclear test before or after the U.S. presidential election in November to bolster its leverage, Seoul's defense chief said in a media interview published Monday.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg in Tokyo on Sunday as he was in the Japanese capital for a trilateral meeting with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Minoru Kihara.
"North Korea has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test when a decision is made," Shin said. "We cannot rule out the possibility of that decisive moment being right before or after the U.S. presidential election to raise its leverage against the U.S."
Concerns have persisted that Pyongyang could engage in provocative acts to highlight its military presence and elicit more U.S. policy attention as the U.S. is set to hold the general election to pick a successor to President Joe Biden who dropped out of the presidential race recently.
Seoul officials have long said that Pyongyang has made preparations required for what would be its seventh nuclear test at a time when it has been pursuing the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons under an aggressive nuclear policy.
Pyongyang last carried out an underground nuclear test in 2017.
During the interview with Bloomberg, Shin also said that Seoul, Washington and Tokyo will reach a deal to "standardize" the tracking of missiles fired from North Korea.
The three countries have already launched a system to share North Korean missile warning data in real time as they have been stepping up trilateral cooperation against North Korean threats.
At the trilateral meeting in Tokyo, Shin, Austin and Kihara signed a trilateral security cooperation framework designed to further solidify the three countries' three-way collaboration to counter North Korean threats.
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