North Korea ‘plans nuclear missile test for Army Day’

North Korea has almost completed preparations for a third nuclear test following its recent failed rocket launch.

A senior source, with links to the regime and neighbouring China, confirmed such a test was imminent.

South Korean defence sources have been quoted in local media as saying a launch could come within two weeks and one North Korea analyst has suggested that it could come as early as the North’s “Army Day” today.

The pariah state sacrificed the chance of closer ties with the United States when it launched the long-range rocket on 13 April and was censured by the United Nations’ Security Council, including the North’s only major ally, China.

Critics say the rocket launch was aimed at honing the North’s ability to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US, in a bid to increase its influence.

Now the North appears to be about to carry out a third nuclear test after two in 2006 and 2009.

“Soon. Preparations are almost complete,” the source said when asked whether North Korea was planning a nuclear test.

This is the first time a senior official has confirmed a planned test and the source has correctly predicted events in the past, talking about the 2006 test days before they happened.

The rocket launch and nuclear test come as Kim Jong-un, the third of his line to rule North Korea, seeks to cement his hold on power.

Mr Kim succeeded in December and has reaffirmed his father’s “military first” policies that have impoverished the economy, appearing to dash hopes of an opening to the outside world. America, South Korea and Japan, which have most to fear from any North Korean nuclear threat, are watching events anxiously and many observers say the North may have the capacity to conduct a test using highly enriched uranium for the first time.

Defence experts say that by successfully enriching uranium, to make bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima nearly 70 years ago, the North would be able to build up stocks of weapons-grade nuclear material.

It would also allow it more easily to manufacture a nuclear warhead to mount on an ICBM.

The source did not specify whether the test would be a third using plutonium, of which it has limited stocks, or whether uranium would be used.

The rocket launch and the planned nuclear test have exposed the limits of China’s hold over Mr Kim.

“China is like a chameleon toward North Korea,” said Kim Young-soo, professor of political science at Sogang University in Seoul. “It says it objects to North Korea’s provocative acts, but it does not participate in punishing the North.”

Reports have suggested a Chinese company may have supplied a 16-wheeled rocket launcher shown off at a military parade to mark this month’s centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the state’s founder, in possible breach of UN sanctions. China denies this.

The source said there was debate in North Korea’s leadership over whether to go ahead with the launch in the face of US warnings and the possibility of further UN sanctions, but that hawks in the Korean People’s Army had won the debate.

The source dismissed speculation that the failed launch had dealt a blow to Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s, who came to power after his father Kim Jong-il died after a 17-year rule that saw North Korea experience a famine in the 1990s.

“Kim Jong-un was named first secretary of the Workers’ Party and head of the National Defence Commission,” the source said, adding that the titles consolidated his grip on power.