SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Yonhap) -- After North Korea hinted at conducting a nuclear test in defiance of new UN sanctions against its rocket launch, South Korea has stepped up monitoring of tunnels at the communist state's test site in its northeast, military officials said Wednesday.
Citing satellite images that revealed excavation and related movement at the Punggye-ri test site, Seoul intelligence officials said Pyongyang is ready to detonate a nuclear device on a few days' notice, but the decision to go ahead with the test will be a political one.
