WASHINGTON, D.C.: South Korea’s top diplomat said on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) that North Korea had completed preparations for a new nuclear test and that only a political decision by that country’s top leadership can prevent it from going forward. After talks with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, D.C., South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said the North would pay a price if it proceeded, as feared, with what would be its seventh nuclear test in the coming days.

“North Korea has completed preparations for another nuclear test and I think only a political decision has to be made,” Park said. Before Monday, American and South Korean officials had only said the North was nearing completion of such preparations.

“If North Korea ventures into another nuclear test, I think it [would] only strengthen our deterrence and also international sanctions,” the minister said. “North Korea should change its mind and make the right decision.” Apart from sanctions, Park did not say what that price the North would pay or outline how the deterrence policy would change, but Blinken said the US and treaty allies South Korea and Japan could adjust their military postures in response. “We’re preparing for all contingencies in very close coordination with others and we are prepared to make both short and longerterm adjustments to our military posture,” Blinken said, adding that “the pressure will be sustained.”

“It will continue and, as appropriate…will be increased,” he said.

Both Park and Blinken stressed that the door to negotiations without any precondition remained open for North Korea. But the top American diplomat, repeating comments from numerous US officials in recent days, lamented that North Korea continued to ignore overtures for dialogue.

On Sunday, Pyongyang test-fired what appeared to be artillery shells toward the sea, according to South Korea’s military, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for greater defense capability to cope with external threats.

The North’s artillery tests draw less outside attention than its missile launches, which it has conducted more so far this year than in any previous year. But its forward-deployed long-range artillery guns are a serious security threat to South Korea’s populous metropolitan region, which is only 40 to 50 kilometers (25 to 30 miles) from the North Korean border.

The suspected artillery launches were the latest in a spate of weapons tests by North Korea this year in what foreign experts call an attempt to pressure its rivals Washington and Seoul to relax international sanctions against Pyongyang and make other concessions.

In March, North Korea testlaunched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US mainland, breaching a 2018 moratorium on big missile tests.

A possible new North Korean nuclear test would be the seventh of its kind. Some experts say Pyongyang is likely to use the test to build warheads to be mounted on tactical nuclear weapons aimed at hitting South Korean targets.