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After the S.K. gov't and media were downplaying a possible nuclear test by the DPRK for a while, like usual, at least since last week it seems that they're alarmed by some strange developments in the North.

Here just some of the latest S.K. reports about the issue, published in the last week:

Seoul alert after Pyongyang warns of 'countermeasures'

(Yonhap, 8.27)

South Korea's government and military was kept on alert Sunday following the North's warning one day earlier that it would respond to U.S.-imposed financial sanctions with "countermeasures."

North Korea said in a Foreign Ministry statement released Saturday that it would take all necessary countermeasures against what it calls intensifying U.S. financial restrictions on the communist country. The warning came amid reports of the North's alleged steps to conduct its first nuclear test.

Government and military sources said the North's spoken-of countermeasures would include nuclear tests or additional long-range missile launches, adding that Seoul is preparing itself for such "worst-case scenarios." The North test-fired the latest missiles despite international appeals not to do so in early July.

Officials were also put on alert by the report of a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan earlier on Saturday. "We are not able to conclude that North Korea will not conduct a nuclear test to bolster its deterrent effect against the U.S. if the Bush administration decides to take a tougher stance (against the North)," the Chosun Sinbo said in a commentary, which often represents the North's official position.

The sources agreed that the North, which already declared it possesses a nuclear deterrent on Feb. 10 last year, is capable of carrying out the nuclear test.

"The North might have received the know-how of how to conduct a nuclear test from Pakistan, and constructing the underground tunnel for the nuclear test is not so difficult," said Kim Tae-woo, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-run research organization.

The government is closely monitoring developments around the clock to see whether the North will carry out a nuclear test. Earlier this month, it dispatched six soldiers to a local earthquake detection center to check for any signal of such a test...

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20060827/610000000020060827162202E9.html

Nuclear Test Could Backfire: Experts (K. Times, 9.01)
 
South Korea’s preparation for an action plan to cope with a possible North Korean nuclear test does not indicate any imminence of the worst-case scenario, but is rather meant to send a strong warning signal to Pyongyang, according to experts.

Should the North go ahead with the test, however, it would spoil almost everything for the already isolated country _ producing additional sanctions by the United States and Japan and soured ties with China and Russia, they added...
 
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006090118383711990.htm

And today's(9.03) K. Times wrote this(even German, UK, Israel.. media were reporting about the same issue):

Missile Activity Detected in North
 
An interceptor missile, launched from the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, moves to its target in California on Sept. 1. / AP-Yonhap 
South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities have detected suspicious movements of large trucks at a North Korean missile launch site, a sign for a possible missile test, a government source said on Sunday.

The move came after the U.S. military announced over the weekend it had successfully intercepted a dummy long-range warhead that in some respects, according to defense experts, resembled a warhead from a North Korean rocket.

``I was told that intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States have recently spotted several large vehicles moving around at the launch site located in Kitaeryong, Kangwon Province, the source was quoted as saying by the Yonhap News Agency in Seoul. ``Now, we do not exclude the possibility of the North conducting additional missile-firing.''

...

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200609/kt2006090316594310440.htm

But actually there are more important and serious issues/"problems" between S.K. and the DPRK:

North Seeks New Partner for Golf Courses ^^