(Vatican Radio) A South Korean cabinet minister said there are indications that the
North may be preparing another nuclear test. Separate reports from South Korea say
there is heightened traffic and activity by labourers at the mountain site where North
Korea detonated a device in February.
On Sunday, China's president told a regional
summit that no country in Asia "should be allowed to throw a region or even the whole
world into chaos," he said, "for selfish gain."
Xi Jinping stopped short of
naming North Korea, but the remarks were seen by many as rebuking Pyongyang for its
weeks of war-talk. China is widely seen as North Korea's only international ally.
And
meanwhile, the United States has reportedly postponed a planned missile test of its
own in case that should unduly provoke North Korea.
The communist nation has
been accusing Washington of preparing to invade.
The U.S. says it has no such
intention, but latest reports say U.S. commanders have agreed with their South Korean
counterparts to make a more robust response this time, to any action that the North
may take.