North Korea might stage a second atomic test to raise the
stakes in nuclear disarmament negotiations next year but the
new US administration is unlikely to yield, a South Korean
think-tank said Monday.
It warned it could not rule out the possibility the North
may threaten to suspend denuclearisation, boycott six-party
disarmament talks and fire missiles or even a nuclear weapon
"to tame the new Obama administration or increase its
leverage in the nuclear negotiations."
"North Korea may become less reasonable in the face
of growing challenges from instability of its regime and rumours
of leader Kim Jong-Il's ill health," said the report
from the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security,
which is under the foreign ministry.
But incoming President Barack Obama, it forecast, would be
tougher than his predecessor in dealing with what it called
Pyongyang's brinkmanship.
The communist state staged its first nuclear test in October
2006 while the six-party negotiations were at a stalemate.
