North Korea appears technically ready to conduct its fourth nuclear test any time once a political decision is made, South Korea’s foreign minister said Thursday. Concerns have been growing since Pyongyang threatened to conduct a “new form” of nuclear test late last month. South Korean officials are on alert after detecting “increased activity” at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in its mountainous northeastern region close to its border with China and Russia. North Korea has so far carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. “If there’s a political decision made, (North Korea) seems to be technically prepared to carry out a nuclear test any time,” Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said in a meeting of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee, South Korean News Agency (Yonhap) reported. “We have gathered (information) that various activities (related with a nuclear test) are taking place more actively,” Yun said, repeating the defense ministry’s similar announcement earlier this week. Yun said South Korea is now in close contact with the United States and China to block the possible nuclear test, pledging to take stern counteractions if the North carries out the test. “The key members of the international community, including the US and China, are having in-depth consultations” over the possible nuclear test, Yun noted. “The international community is of the same voice that North Korea’s fourth nuclear test will be a very serious (issue). If the North goes ahead with a test in defiance of the international warnings, it will face painful measures.”