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Download The Democratic People's Republic of Korea said on Saturday it has no plans to conduct a nuclear test "at present", an announcement which analysts said was made under increasing pressure from the international community. The Republic of Korea tried to "rattle the nerves of the DPRK in a bid to cause it to conduct a nuclear test, though such a thing is not planned at present", a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the country's official news agency KCNA. This is Pyongyang's second refutation in a month of the alleged nuclear test plan, and analysts said the two announcements show the mounting pressure on Pyongyang from the international community. Since the DPRK's failed satellite launch in mid-April, the Pentagon has issued strong warnings to Pyongyang over its nuclear program, and the DPRK has also started to care more about the reactions of major players toward the Korean Peninsula denuclearization issue, said Zhang Lian gui, an expert on Korean Peninsula studies at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. The DPRK conducted nuclear tests in October 2006 and May 2009, and received sanctions from the UN Security Council. The DPRK launched its planned "earth observation" satellite on April 13, using a long-range rocket, in a bid to mark the 100th birthday of its late leader Kim Il-sung. Pyongyang later confirmed that the satellite failed to enter orbit. | 
