South Korea's spy agency warned Seoul officials that North Korea is preparing for a fourth nuclear test, but noted the North has no intention of following through with its plans in the immediate future.
The National Intelligence Service made their declaration Tuesday in a closed-door meeting with lawmakers, according to the office of lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo, reported the Associated Press. Woo claimed the agency had been monitoring activities at the main Nyongbon nuclear complex in the North.
Lee and another lawmaker, Shin Kyung-min, said the agency didn't reveal how it obtained the information, and failed to elaborate on what "test preparations" meant. Furthermore, the spy agency's public affairs office said it couldn't confirm the reported assessment.
North Korea had announced in September that its atomic plants had been restarted and its fuel plants had been upgraded, leading many to believe - most notably South Korea - that the North might conduct another nuclear test explosion, according to the International Business Times.
Seoul's National Intelligence Service, Yonhap, stated that the North intended to conduct the nuclear test to counter aggressive policies the United States and its allies made against it.
Pyongyang has traditionally conducted its tests after launching long-range rockets. However, after deciding to not to follow through with their threat of using a rocket launch to send a satellite into orbit earlier this month, fears of a nuclear test subsided, according to USA Today.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, followed by additional ones in 2009 and 2013.
