North Korea has completed preparations for a nuclear test and is awaiting the best time to carry it out, a South Korean lawmaker has said.

An announcement that comes on the eve of US President Joe Biden's visit to Seoul.

Despite the recent wave of Covid-19 in North Korea, "preparations for a nuclear test have been completed and they are only looking for the right time" to carry it out, MK Ha Tae-keung told reporters, citing Seoul National Intelligence Service information.

The United States and South Korea have been warning for weeks that this trial could take place at any time.

Satellite imagery has shown signs of new activity in a tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

Pyongyang had assured to have demolished this sit in 2018 before a historic summit between Kim Jong Un and the American president at the time, Donald Trump, the beginning of a phase of dialogue which has since fizzled.

A significant probability of nuclear tests during the trip of Joe Biden

Mr. Biden arrives in Seoul late Friday for a series of summits, his first trip to Asia as president.

"Our intelligence reflects the real possibility" of nuclear-capable missile testing or a nuclear weapon test at the time of Joe Biden's trip, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Wednesday.

Under international sanctions, North Korea has dramatically stepped up missile testing this year, while ignoring US negotiating proposals.

The country had ceased in 2017 the firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear tests.

He has already partly broken this moratorium by firing an intercontinental missile at the end of March.

Talks have stalled since the failed Trump-Kim summit in 2019, and Kim Jong Un recently declared his intention to build up his nuclear arsenal "as soon as possible".

Another cause mentioned.

North Korea announced its first Covid cases last week, and is now reporting several hundred thousand "fever" cases a day.

Several experts believe that a nuclear test could help divert public attention from the epidemic.

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