North Korea has worried United States officials with its announcement last week that it intends to test nuclear weapons.
The announcement came soon after the United Nations Security Council pressed to impose sanctions to tighten security measures against the country. The sanctions were a response to a successful launch of a long-range rocket that was deemed capable of reaching U.S. territory.
“We think they are preparing for a test,” a U.S. official told CNN reporters according to an online release. “We are watching it as closely as we can.”
A senior official told reporters that the exact timing of the launch is unknown, but recent activity towards garnering the necessary equipment and preparing a site suggest the likelihood of a future test.
“If you go by what little activity we see and by their rhetoric . . . it’s a good bet they will do [a test] soon,” the senior official told CNN. “The trash talk has reached such a crescendo that by their own ego, we don’t see how they back down. But let me be clear, the physical signs don’t show imminence, because the major activity is underground.”
Pyongyang has also warned South Korea of possible repercussions that could follow the South’s support of the new U.N. sanctions. The White House has condemned these statements as “needlessly provocative.”
“Further provocations would only increase Pyongyang’s isolation, and its continued focus on its nuclear and missile program is doing nothing to help the North Korean people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told BBC reporters Friday.
The U.N. sanctions, which North Korea has declared as equivalent to a declaration of war, included efforts to repress nuclear tests and rocket launches.
