North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, watches a missile launch alongside military officials in this image released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 19, 2024. (KCNA)
SEOUL, South Korea — Pyongyang could test a nuclear weapon or launch an intercontinental ballistic missile on the heels of the U.S. presidential election, South Korea’s spy agency recently told lawmakers, according to a local media report.
The National Intelligence Service believes North Korea has 154 pounds of plutonium and an unspecified amount of highly enriched uranium to craft nuclear weapons, according to the Yonhap News report, which cited South Korean lawmakers reportedly briefed by the agency.
A show of force by North Korea could be “an attempt to boost confidence among the population amid the extremely dire economic situation,” Rep. Lee Seong-Kweun of the ruling People Power Party said in the report.
South Korean national security adviser Shin Won Sik, during a separate televised interview with Yonhap on Monday, said it was “entirely possible” that Pyongyang could conduct a nuclear test around the “time of the U.S. presidential election.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can conduct a nuclear test at a time of his choosing, Shin said, adding the dictator would likely do so “after considering its strategic advantages.”
A Sept. 13 report by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency unveiled a purported uranium enrichment facility at an undisclosed location. Kim at the time said increasing the production of nuclear materials was “necessary for the manufacture of tactical nuclear weapons,” according to KCNA.
North Korea has detonated six underground nuclear devices since 2006. The regime last tested what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb in 2017.
It has also fired more than 40 ballistic missiles in 10 separate days of testing so far this year.
The communist regime last fired several short-range ballistic missiles on Sept. 18 that flew northeast roughly 250 miles from South Pyongan province, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Those short-range ballistic missiles were upgraded to carry a 4.5-ton warhead, KCNA reported the following day.
