North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear test at any moment, a South Korean politician has said, with the United States warning it could happen while President Joe Biden is in Seoul this week.
North Korea's "preparations for a nuclear test have been completed and they are only looking for the right time", Ha Tae-keung told reporters after being briefed by Seoul's National Intelligence Service.
Kim Jong-un's regime is battling a spiralling Covid-19 outbreak with nearly two million reported cases of "fever", but both Washington and Seoul say this has not derailed Pyongyang's test plans.
After a record-breaking blitz of missile launches this year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, Mr Kim could seek to distract North Koreans from the spiralling health crisis with a nuclear weapons test, analysts say.
US intelligence thinks there is a "genuine possibility" that Mr Kim could choose to stage a "provocation" after Mr Biden arrives in Seoul late tomorrow for his first trip as president to Asia, his administration said.
This could mean "further missile tests, long range missile tests or a nuclear test, or frankly both" around the time of Mr Biden's trip, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.
Satellite imagery also indicates North Korea is preparing to conduct what would be its seventh nuclear test.
Both Seoul and Washington have been warning for weeks that it could come any day.
Mr Biden lands in South Korea tomorrow for his first summit with the country's new president Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office last week.
Talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stalled for years, after an extraordinary show of diplomacy between then US president Donald Trump and Mr Kim, which was brokered by Mr Yoon's predecessor Moon Jae-in, ultimately ended in failure.
Mr Trump held three headline-grabbing meetings with Mr Kim and has claimed that the two were "in love", but analysts say little to no progress was made in dismantling the North's nuclear programmes.
Mr Kim recently said he was strengthening his nuclear arsenal "at the fastest possible speed".
