President Yoon Suk-yeol takes reporters' questions as he arrives at the presidential office in Seoul on July 22. Yonhap

President Yoon Suk-yeol said Friday that North Korea is ready to conduct a nuclear test at any time it decides.

Yoon was responding to a reporter's question about the U.S. Department of Defense's assessment that the North has completed preparations to carry out a nuclear test as early as within the month.

"We believe that not only at the end of this month, but ever since my inauguration, it's fully ready and able to do it whenever it decides," he told reporters as he arrived for work. (Yonhap)