North Korea’s rumoured seventh nuclear test could happen during US elections, South Korea says

North Korea ’s much-speculated seventh nuclear test could happen around the US presidential elections in November, South Korea ’s defence minister has warned.

Shin Wonsik arrived in Tokyo on Sunday to lock a deal with Japan and the US for the tracking of North Korean missiles and share real-time data among the three countries.

Concerns about Pyongyang’s nuclear programme have grown in recent years as the North performed a slew of provocative missile tests and openly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively in potential conflicts with its adversaries.

South Korean intelligence agencies have been claiming that North Korea has finished all preparations to conduct a nuclear missile test which would be its seventh since its last tested one in September 2017.

But Mr Wonsik said Kim Jong-un’s regime could pull the trigger around the US presidential elections in November to raise its profile.

“North Korea has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test when a decision is made,” Mr Shin said. “We cannot rule out the possibility of that decisive moment being right before or after the US presidential election to raise its leverage against the US”.

North Korea conducted six nuclear tests at the key site of Punggye-ri so far, in October 2006, May 2009, February 2013, January 2016, September 2016 and September 2017.

The last test at the site involved a powerful atomic bomb with an estimated yield of between 120-250 kilotons, according to experts.

The site has been shut down since North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium on nuclear weapons tests in 2018. However, satellite images and intelligence gathered by South Korea have suggested construction in the area.

Earlier this month, North Korea’s defence ministry threatened to boost its nuclear fighting capability and warned that the US and South will pay “ an unimaginably harsh price ” after Seoul and Washington authorized the signing of new joint nuclear deterrence guidelines .

US president Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol adopted the guidelines as part of efforts to enhance their capabilities to cope with North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal.

Mr Shin met his American and Japanese counterparts Lloyd Austin and Kihara Minoru respectively to sign the agreement for "trilateral cooperation" which included joint exercises between the countries as well as information sharing.

"The three defence leaders will further develop trilateral cooperation to effectively address regional challenges, provocations, and threats," read a joint press statement.

North Korea is known for timing its provocative tests around crucial political events.

It comes after North Korea delivered a stinging rebuke to Donald Trump for flaunting his supposedly friendly relations with Kim Jong-un , saying “we do not care” about the Republican.

It rejected the idea that Mr Trump’s first presidency had a substantial impact on US-North Korea relations, and said personal connections and diplomacy should be looked at separately.