North Korea appears to be preparing a fourth nuclear test as well as a provocative missile launch, South Korea said Monday, despite an unusually blunt call from China for restraint. Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae told lawmakers there were "signs" that another test was in the pipeline, with intelligence reports showing heightened activity at the North's Punggye-ri atomic test site. "We are trying to figure out whether it is a genuine preparation for a nuclear test or just a ploy to heap more pressure on us and the US," the JoongAng Ilbo daily cited a senior South Korean government official as saying. It was the North's third nuclear test in February and subsequent UN sanctions that kickstarted the cycle of ongoing escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula. Intelligence reports also suggest Pyongyang has readied two mid-range missiles on mobile launchers on its east coast, and is aiming at a test firing before the April 15 birthday of late founding leader Kim Il-Sung. Kim Jang-Soo, chief national security adviser to President Park Geun-Hye, said a test-launch could come before or after Wednesday, the date by which the North has suggested foreign diplomats consider leaving Pyongyang. Japan has ordered its armed forces to shoot down any North Korean missile headed towards its territory, a defence ministry spokesman in Tokyo said Monday. A missile launch would be highly provocative, especially given the strong rebuke the North's sole ally China handed it on the weekend and a US concession to delay its own planned missile test.
