South Korean minister sees high possibility of another nuclear test by North Korea

South Korea’s defence minister said on Wednesday he sees a high possibility of North Korea conducting a sixth nuclear test in the wake of the North’s first test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

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“North Korea’s eventual goal is to weaponise its nuclear power, so I see a high chance that will happen,” Defence Minister Han Min-koo told a parliamentary briefing in response to a question from a lawmaker about whether he believed North Korea would conduct a nuclear test soon.

“We know they’re always prepared to conduct nuclear tests but so far we have not detected any unusual signs,” Han said.

North Korea said it tested a newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday, which some experts believe had the range to reach parts of the mainland United States.

In a direct response to North Korea’s missile launch, U.S. and South Korean soldiers fired “deep strike” precision missiles into South Korean territorial waters on Tuesday, That from U.S. military officials in Seoul.

The U.S. Eighth Army said the missile firings were a show of force meant to demonstrate U.S.-South Korean solidarity.

The U.S. asserted Tuesday that North Korea’s latest missile launch was indeed an intercontinental ballistic missile, as the North had boasted and the U.S. and South Korea had feared. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called it a “new escalation of the threat” to the U.S.

–With files from the Associated Press