South Korea on Monday said the Kim Jong-un led North Korea is ready to conduct another nuclear test, AP reported. Defence ministry spokesperson Moon Sang Gyun said that intelligence agencies in both Seoul and the United States believe that Pyongyang possesses the ability to conduct another test at the underground Punggye-ri test site, where the isolated country’s fifth nuclear test this year was conducted on Friday.

Seoul also has a plan to “completely destroy” its neighbour if the latter shows any indication of launching a nuclear attack, BBC reported, citing South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The South will particularly target the districts of the North Korean capital where its leadership is believed to be hiding, the report said, adding that Pyongyang “will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map” if such a plan is implemented.

After Friday’s test, Pyongyang claimed it had used “standardised” warheads, increasing worries that the country is making progress in its efforts to develop sophisticated weaponry. Meanwhile, the country’s foreign minister Ri Yong-ho arrived in Beijing ahead of the United Nations General Assembly scheduled for later in September, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.

World leaders have condemned Pyongyang’s nuclear test and the United Nations Security Council has agreed to frame new sanctions against the country. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the council to take “appropriate action” against the “brazen breach” of the international body’s resolutions. South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Kim and his government were “spiralling out of control”.

The nuclear test took place on the 69th anniversary of the founding of North Korea by Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather. It came even after the US and the UNSC imposed stringent sanctions against Pyongyang in March, in response to a hydrogen bomb test Pyongyang conducted in January.