North Korea nearly ready for fourth nuclear test, Seoul says

North Korea is making final preparations to conduct its fourth nuclear test but may not do so, South Korea's defence minister said yesterday.

Kim Kwan-jin told South Korean journalists that North Korea could detonate a nuclear device the instant the decision is made, though he didn't elaborate on what the final step of those preparations was, according to ministry officials.

The defence minister also said North Korea may hold off on a test or it may be aiming to trick outside observers into believing it will explode a device even though it doesn't intend to do so, the officials said, requesting anonymity.

North Korea has threatened in recent weeks to conduct a nuclear test to protest against what it calls US and South Korean hostility and international condemnation over its rocket and missile tests earlier this year.

Many North Korea watchers had suspected a nuclear test would occur when US President Barack Obama visited Seoul last month but nothing happened. Analysts remain divided over whether North Korea would go ahead with a test anytime soon.

But the test, if made, would mark another defiant response to US-led international pressures on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.