A TV screen shows an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a news program at the Seoul Station in Seoul, Oct. 13. AP-Yonhap

North Korea could carry out two or three nuclear tests in a row as part of efforts to develop tactical nuclear weapons, a senior defense official said Friday.

Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul made the remarks amid growing concerns that Pyongyang could soon carry out what would be its seventh nuclear test

"If the (North) seeks to test tactical nuclear devices to mount on its various missiles that are recently being developed, it has to be prepared at a (certain) technological level," Shin said in an interview with Yonhap News TV. "It might be carried out two or three times in a row, not just once."

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Shin added it would be difficult to predict the timing of the North's next nuclear experiment but acknowledged it has become more imminent.

He also said the South Korean government is making efforts to maintain the 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction accord, despite the North's latest provocation in violation of the agreement.

Earlier in the day, the North fired a short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea and some 170 artillery shots into maritime "buffer zones" set under the 2018 inter-Korean military accord. (Yonhap)