Washington, Aug 3
The United States will continue to monitor the possibility of North Korea conducting another nuclear test, a Pentagon spokesperson said, amid concerns that Pyongyang could engage in provocative acts around the US presidential election in November.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh made the remarks on Friday after South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik said in a recent interview with Bloomberg that South Korea is not ruling out the possibility of a North Korean nuclear test before or after the US general election, Yonhap news agency reported.
"It's something that we're going to continue to monitor and something that we will always work with our ROK and Japanese allies on and coordinate on," she said, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.
"But any tests like that are incredibly destabilising to the region, and we will continue to monitor," she added.
Singh also reiterated that the US wants to see the "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula."
In the interview with Bloomberg, Shin said that Pyongyang has completed preparations to conduct what would be its seventh nuclear test "when a decision is made" and that the North could conduct it before or after the election to "raise its leverage against the US."