North Korea has been placed under “martial law”, according to reports from neighbouring South Korea, while Kim Jong-un, leader of the habitually bellicose state, has informed soldiers in the Korean People's Army to “prepare for war”.
The posturing from Pyongyang follows international criticism over North Korea’s stated plans to forge ahead with a third nuclear weapons test, which could be timed to fall on the birthday of Jong-un’s father, the late Kim Jong-il on February 16.
According to The Telegraph, reports in the South Korean media have been verified by officials in Seoul and Beijing, while satellite imagery of the Pyunggye-ri testing ground suggests that the site is being prepared for a blast.
Any future testing would follow detonations in 2006 and 2009, which drew international condemnation, and well as the more recent launch of a rocket in December, widely regarded as a trial of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile system.
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