White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday (local time) that he is concerned about the possibility of North Korea launching another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

“From time to time, we’ve been concerned about the possibility that North Korea might conduct a seventh nuclear test,” Sullivan said in an interview with CBS.

“We haven’t seen any indication of that yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if North Korea were to conduct additional tests to develop an ICBM capability,” he said.

“We are watching these tests very closely,” he said, emphasizing that “very close coordination with our allies, including South Korea and Japan, allows us to respond to these threats in a coordinated manner.”

Regarding diplomatic outreach efforts in the wake of North Korea’s latest ICBM launch, “Not since this test, 먹튀검증 but the Biden administration has been consistent in its position that we are ready to discuss a nuclear solution with North Korea without preconditions,” he said.

“China also has a role to play here,” he added, noting that North Korea’s continued missile launches only destabilize security and create an environment where the United States and its allies can only increase their actions and posture in response to these threats.”

North Korea, which has been engaged in an unprecedented level of missile provocations, raised the stakes even higher when it launched a solid-fueled ICBM, the Hwasong-18, on Dec. 12.

“Thoroughly subduing and crushing the most hostile and most threatening U.S. anti-Republic nuclear confrontation policy is our right of self-defense to protect the Korean Peninsula and the Asia-Pacific region from the devastation of nuclear war,” Kim Yo Jong, vice chairwoman of the North’s Workers’ Party, said in a speech published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday, adding that “no one has the slightest reason to criticize our new intercontinental ballistic missile launch.”