South Korea’s Military On High Alert Due To North Korea’s Key Anniversary

South Korea's military is on high alert due to North Korea's key anniversary. South Korea fears they might stage another provocation as their celebration.

According to military officials, North Korea can conduct another nuclear test and launch a ballistic missile any time at its missile launching and nuclear testing sites.

"Chances are high that the North will conduct its sixth nuclear detonation or test-fire a ballistic missile ahead of the anniversary of its ruling Workers' Party and the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) scheduled in the U.S. later this month," a defense ministry official told Yonhap.

The key anniversary of NK falls on Monday, October 10th, and the defense chiefs of South Korea together with the United States will discuss the ways and strategies to ramp up the allies. On October 20, there might be an involvement of a pre-emptive strike option during the annual meeting at Washington D.C.

"Starting today, the military will maintain heightened vigilance against any provocations by the North," a defense official said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Unification said that the South Korean government is "fully prepared" against any provocations by North Korea. The South Korean government said that the ongoing activity at tunnels No.2 and No.3 in Punggye-ri test site in North Korea indicates that another nuclear test is peing prepared in the country. Last month, Pyongyang conducted its fifth underground nuclear test on tunnel No. 2 while there is no denotation carried out in tunnel No. 3.

In the past decade, North Korea has conducted a total of five nuclear tests, and two nuclear tests took place this year. The defense ministry of South Korea said that the North may lainch either a medium range Rodong or intermediate range Musudan ballistic missile.

Pyongyang may fire Musuan and Rodong missiles which are capable of freely moving near the border of South Korea. On June this year, NK announced a successful launch of intermediate-range ballistic missile proclaiming that the missile has the capacity to strike US forces located in the Pacific region.

However, Seoul did not believe the possibility of Pyongyang firing a ballistic missile that could possibly reach the United States.

Furthermore, North Korea announced in the last week of September that they successfully conducted a ground test of a new type high-power engine for a rocket which can provide a geo-stationary satellite around the Earth. It also added that the engine has a thrust of 80 tons which is three times greater than the engine used in its previous missile launches.