Pyongyang told Beijing about third nuclear test, report says
Seoul is reportedly increasing surveillance of a potential site amid talk of a test this week
A North Korean official has reportedly told Chinese authorities that the communist state plans to conduct a third nuclear test this week, though analysts have greeted the news with scepticism.
"We've heard a North Korean official in Beijing told the Chinese side that the North planned to carry out a nuclear test between January 13 and 20," the Joongang daily quoted an unidentified Seoul official as saying.
South Korean officials have a policy of not commenting on intelligence matters.
"We're now stepping up surveillance over the Punggye-ri nuclear test site," the official said, referring to the North's only nuclear test site, where tests were carried out in 2006 and 2009.
With the UN Security Council still debating possible sanctions after the North launched a long-range rocket last month, there has been widespread speculation that Pyongyang may carry out a third nuclear test.
But Professor Yang Moo-jin, of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said there were "no signs of a nuclear test being imminent".
"Chances are slim that the North might push ahead with a nuclear test in this winter season, especially when China is insisting on a moderated response to the rocket launch to prevent a third nuclear test taking place," Yang said.