N Korea will not rule out nuclear test

There are growing concerns, bolstered by reports of suspicious activity, that Pyongyang may be planning to follow up its recent missile launches with a nuclear test. Pyongyang claims to have nuclear weapons but hasn't performed any known test.

"We can't say for sure that North Korea will not conduct a nuclear test as part of strengthening its self-defence," said Choson Sinbo, a newspaper published in Japan by a pro-North Korean association linked to the Pyongyang regime.

"The full responsibility for this lies with the US, which regards any forces that don't agree with or submit to its logic or actions as evil," the paper said, accusing Washington of trying to topple the North's communist regime.