North Korea has completed preparations to test an ICBM-class missile, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday, citing the South Korean military, with a launch possibly timed to coincide with next week’s U.S. presidential election.

North Korea has also completed “unspecified preparations” at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site, Yonhap reported the military as saying, raising the possibility of a seventh nuclear test compounding global concerns surrounding North Korea’s deployment of troops to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine.

North Korea’s suspected preparations for a missile and nuclear test were outlined to members of South Korea’s parliament in a briefing by the military’s Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, Yonhap reported.

“It appears that preparations are nearly complete for an ICBM-class long-range missile, including a space launch vehicle,” members of South Korea’s parliament said, citing the agency.

Preparations for a transporter erector launcher for the missile were complete and it had been deployed, though no missile had been mounted, they said, adding that the DIA said the ICBM test could come before or after the U.S. election on Nov. 5.

North Korea’s last ICBM test was in December when it fired its latest solid-fueled ICBM, the Hwasong-18.

There was no immediate elaboration on the expected nuclear test but South Korea said in September that North Korea may conduct its seventh nuclear test after the U.S. election.

North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006, all of them underground at the Punggye-ri site. Its last nuclear test was in 2017.

North Korea unveiled details of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time in September, with leader Kim Jong Un calling for increasing the number of centrifuges for uranium enrichment so it can build up its nuclear arsenal for self-defense.

South Korea says the North possesses about 70 kilograms of plutonium and a significant amount of highly enriched uranium, or HEU, enough to build dozens of nuclear weapons.

North Korea classifies itself a nuclear state but it has kept secret the number of nuclear weapons it has or deployed.

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Edited by Mike Firn