Because if there’s one thing an egotist or a little cannot abide, it’s being ignored (or falling off the front pages of the papers) for too long.
North Korea said Tuesday that it will conduct a nuclear test to bolster its self-defense capability amid what it calls increasing U.S. hostility toward the communist regime. […] “The DPRK will in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed.”
[…] “The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defense,” said the statement, carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The North’s “nuclear weapons will serve as reliable war deterrent for protecting the supreme interests of the state and the security of the Korean nation from the U.S. threat of aggression and averting a new war and firmly safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean peninsula under any circumstances,” the statement said.
Of course, this sort of thing could be dragged out for a while as fodder for further “Look at me!” requests.
The statement gave no precise date of when a test might occur. […] Pyongyang has said it has nuclear weapons, but is not known to have conducted any test to prove its claim. It has not mentioned a nuclear test in previous public statements.