South Korean TV reports North Korea is preparing for its third nuclear test with two months.

April 20, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) - South Korean news reporter says the North is preparing its third nuclear detonation test between May and June this year; Reuters quoted a South Korean television reporter as saying.

But South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said if the North were in fact preparing for a test there would have been more evidence to substantiate it, dismissing the reporter’s claim.

Pyongyang is now a nuclear-armed state following years of skirmishes with the south and the United States. The north has sought to unified the two Koreas as independent state not vulnerable to foreign influence.

It had already conducted two successful nuclear tests with the last one in May 2009. The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan have been playing it tough with Pyongyang since they agreed to sit down for talks. Washington wants North Korea abandon its nuclear program altogether and make changes to its system of governance, which is based on socialism.

North Korea has been able to withstand years of economic hardships until it made a breakthrough by carrying out its first nuclear test in 2007.