North Korea might carry out another atomic test next year to bolster the status of leader-in-waiting Kim Jong Eun, a Seoul state think tank said Friday, a day after the North threatened a nuclear attack.
Tensions remain high on the peninsula a month after the North bombarded a South Korean border island and killed four people, including civilians.
The North could stage a third test "to demonstrate Kim Jong Eun's military prowess, to improve plutonium-based nuclear weapons and ratchet up military tensions," the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said. A new test is needed to improve its plutonium-based bombs using data from the second test in May 2009, said a report by the institute, which is affiliated to the foreign ministry.
The North has worked for decades to build plutonium-based weapons and last month also disclosed a new uranium-enrichment complex -- a potential new way to make bombs.
The report said the North is likely to build up its atomic arsenal next year and might test a uranium-based weapon "to maximize the shock to the outside world."
The North is thought to have enough plutonium for six to eight weapons, but it is unknown whether it can fit them to missile warheads. Nevertheless, it frequently raises the prospect of nuclear war.
On Thursday, the North vowed readiness for a "sacred war" using its nuclear weapons.
