Seoul: North Korea could
conduct another nuclear test next year in an attempt to
solidify itself as an atomic power, a news report said on Friday,
citing a state-run South Korean think tank.
The Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said in a report
that the communist nation won`t give up its nuclear ambitions
and could test an atomic device in an attempt to assert itself
as a nuclear weapons state, according to a news agency.
North Korea carried out its first-ever nuclear test in
2006 and the second, more powerful test blast in May. The
think tank said the second test was five times as powerful as
the first one and demonstrated progress Pyongyang had made in
its capabilities to build atomic bombs, according to the news agency.
A third test "would increase the possibility of the
international community accepting North Korea as a nuclear
weapons state," the report was quoted as saying.
The North could also test-fire a long-range missile, and
provoke military clashes with South Korea near their land, sea
and air borders next year, Yonhap cited the report as saying.
Neither the report nor comments from the think tank were
available today.
North Korea quit international talks on ending its
nuclear programs earlier this year in anger over international
criticism of its long-range rocket launch denounced as a test
of its missile technology.
PTI
