U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Tuesday there would be a strong and clear response from the United States, South Korea and the world if North Korea were to conduct a nuclear test, Trend reports citing Reuters.
"Any nuclear test would be in complete violation of UN Security Council resolutions (and) there would be a swift and forceful response to such a test ... I believe that not only ROK and United States and Japan but the entire world will respond in a strong and clear manner," she told a news conference after talks with her South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun-dong, in Seoul. ROK is the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.
"We are prepared and ... we will continue our trilateral discussion (with South Korea and Japan) tomorrow," Sherman added.
Her remarks come after South Korea and U.S. forces fired eight surface-to-surface missiles early on Monday off South Korea's east coast in response to a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Sunday.
U.S. and South Korean government authorities and North Korean experts have been saying for weeks that there are signs of new construction at Punggye-ri, North Korea's only known nuclear test site, and that Pyongyang could soon test a bomb. The North has not tested a nuclear bomb since 2017.