Amidst constantly rising tensions, North Korea is apparently ready to launch a nuclear missile test at "anytime", South Korean officials announced Monday.
"We assess that North Korea has almost finished preparations for conducting a nuclear test anytime and all that's left is North Korea making a political decision" to do so, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters Monday.
The spokesman explained he couldn't reveal any further details because they would involve confidential intelligence affairs, Yahoo! News reported.
North Korea's state-run media announced Sunday that at a "high-level" Workers' Party meeting, leader Kim Jong Un delivered "important" guidelines in an attempt to embolden the army and protect national sovereignty. North Korea didn't elaborate, the guidelines likely refer to a nuclear test launch and indicate that Pyongyang has finished the formal procedural steps and is planning to test the missile soon, according to South Korean analyst Hong Hyun-ik.
Partly as a show of force against North Korea, U.S. and South Korean troops began three days of naval drills Monday directed at North Korea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast that involve live-fire exercises, naval maneuvers and submarine detection drills. The maneuvers are part of regular joint military training that the allies scheduled before the latest nuclear tensions began, sout Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
North Korea's state-run media denounced the drills Monday as symbolic foreshadowing of impending battle.
"The dark cloud of war is approaching to the Korean Peninsula," North Korea's official Uriminzokkiri website said in a commentary. "Our patience has the limit."
North Korea has made brisk progress in preparing its main underground nuclear test site recently, but has put a cover over the entrance to the tunnel to thwart attempts to discern whether a detonation might be imminent, South Korean officials and media reported on Friday.
North Korea denounced the U.S. as its "sworn enemy" and announced more nuclear tests earlier in January in retaliation for the United Nations Security Council's unanimous decision to tighten sanctions in the insular nation. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was said to have ordered his military and government to take "high-profile" measures last week, according to the country's media, the New York Times reported, that indicated a third nuclear test could happen soon.
With the nuclear test sites underground, satellites cannot fully observe the reality of the situation, drawing the attention of American and South Korean officials to the entrance of the newest of the three tunnels in particular, where a test is most likely. A sealed entrance to the tunnel would be the most obvious sign of an impending test, according to the New York Times.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media on the record, a South Korean military official said Friday that North Korea recently had put a large cover over the entrance of the tunnel, apparently in an effort to block American spy satellites from monitoring activity at the site. According to the New York Times, South Korean news media also cited military sources that claimed such a cover had been placed over the tunnel's entrance.
South Korean officials say they are watching closely to determine if the cover is camouflage or a sign of an imminent nuclear test.
North Korea experts are keeping a constantly watchful eye on the country, speculating on possible dates for a nuclear test. Some think a test could happen before Feb. 16 - the birthday of Kim Jong-il, the late North Korean leader, and father of current leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea's largest major ally, China has remained noncommittal on diffusing the situation. The country has refused to say whether it was sending an envoy to the country or if Pyongyang has informed them about its plans for a nuclear test launch. China's Foreign Ministry reiterated the nation's opposition to the missile test Monday, but didn't mention North Korea by name.
"We call on all sides, under the current circumstances, to avoid taking measures which will heighten regional tensions. We hope all parties concerned can focus their efforts more on helping to ease tensions on the peninsula and throughout the region and jointly maintain peace and stability on the peninsula," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily media briefing in Beijing.