South Korean Lawmakers: North Korea May Conduct 7th Nuclear Test This Year

According to South Korean legislators on Wednesday, citing intelligence authorities, North Korea might test-fire intercontinental ballistic missiles on a lower, longer trajectory and carry out its seventh nuclear test this year to improve its military capabilities. Yet, the isolated nation has already developed the capacity to launch ICBMs at a normal inclination, enabling them to go significantly farther, MPs said after hearing from Seoul's National Intelligence Agency. The North has only so far performed ICBM tests on lofted trajectories (NIS). In order to put pressure on the United States, which has lately conducted military manoeuvres in the area and planned further sizable exercises in the coming months, they suggested that North Korea may execute an ICBM test on a normal trajectory. On Saturday, two additional ICBMs were shot by North Korea.Short-range ballistic missiles were launched on Monday, and Kim Jong Un's influential sister threatened to use the Pacific as a "shooting range" if the United States continued its current course. Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, said to reporters following the briefing, "ICBMs have not been launched at a normal angle so far, but North Korea has all the capabilities and appears to be setting a timeframe to raise the pressure impact on the United States." In accordance with its prior predictions, North Korea is also expected to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017 and launch a spy satellite this year, but Yoo said the country has not yet mastered the technology necessary to outfit several rocket launchers with nuclear weapons. This is a seventh test, which would be necessary to complete the downsizing and lightening of nuclear weapons, is conceivable, he added. Another committee member, Youn Kun-young, stated that North Korea may also build solid-fuel ICBMs this year and reaffirmed the information from the defence ministry that Chinese surveillance balloons did not cross South Korean airspace.