A fresh nuclear test by North Korea “would not come as a surprise,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday, just days after Pyongyang held a successful test of its most powerful long-range missile.
Sullivan told CBS talk show "Face the Nation" in an interview that he has “been concerned for some time” that North Korea would conduct their seventh nuclear test.
“I don't see any immediate indications that that's going to happen,” he said. “But it would not come as a surprise if North Korea moved forward with another nuclear test with respect to its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability.”
North Korea on Wednesday tested its solid-fueled Hwasong-18 ICBM, with the weapon spending 74 minutes in flight — which would be a record for the country — according to Japan's Defense Ministry.
Sullivan said that the U.S. and its allies were keeping close tabs on developments across the Korean Peninsula.
“This is a capability they began testing several years ago, they have continued to test it,” he said. “We watch all of those tests very closely to see how it is developing. And we coordinate extremely closely with our allies Japan and Korea, to make sure that we are responding in lockstep to this threat.”
Pyongyang’s Punggye-ri nuclear testing site has been in a state of readiness for more than a year, as analysts report that the country looks to develop smaller, more powerful warheads for missiles intended to strike South Korea and Japan, home to the lion’s share of U.S. troops in Asia.
But it may also be looking to lighten the weight of warheads for missiles targeting the United States, including the Hwasong-18, which is thought capable of delivering nuclear bombs to the U.S.
The North’s six previous nuclear blasts were of increasingly larger weapons, with its last blast being one of what it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon. Researchers have said that test was the North's most powerful explosion to date, with some estimating that it was equivalent to about 250 kilotons of TNT — or 16 times the size of the bomb the U.S. detonated over Hiroshima in World War II.
Pyongyang dramatically blew up entrances to tunnels at the Punggye-ri site in May 2018 ahead of a summit meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. President Donald Trump the following month, though no observers and only a handful of journalists were present for the event.
Immediately after the dramatic “closure” of the site, experts said it had been stage-managed and that much of it remained in or near operating condition. Last year, South Korean and U.S. authorities said North Korea had completed preparatory work for conducting a fresh nuclear test, with only a green light from Kim needed.
According to data released in June by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the North is estimated to have assembled up to 30 nuclear warheads and possesses enough fissile material for a total of 50 to 70 bombs.
The North has fired off around 100 missiles since the beginning of last year — a tally that Pyongyang could add to later this month when it marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War armistice on July 27.
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