SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military intelligence agency told lawmakers Wednesday that North Korea has likely completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test and appears to be preparing to test a long-range missile action capable of reaching the United States.

In a closed-door hearing, the agency also said some advanced units of North Korean troops sent to Russia may have arrived on the battlefronts as forces prepare to move into the Kursk region, where Russia has struggled to repel a Ukrainian incursionaccording to two parliamentarians who attended the meeting.

Earlier this month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol told The Associated Press earlier this month that he expects North Korea to stage major provocations such as nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests around the U.S. election to increase pressure on Washington and its allies.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has also flaunted his military nuclear program in recent months, testing various missile systems and unveiling a secret facility to produce weapons-grade uranium in September.

The agency believes North Korea has completed preparations to conduct a nuclear test at its test site in the northeastern city of Punggye-ri, with the detonation likely to be carried out at Tunnel No. 3, said Lee Seong-kweun, one of the lawmakers who attended the hearing. North Korea conducted its sixth and final nuclear test in 2017.

The agency also said it was detecting signs, including the location of launch vehicles, that the North was preparing to test launch an ICBM designed to reach the US mainland, said Lee and Park Sun-won, another lawmaker. The agency believes the ICBM test could take place sometime in November.

“We can’t specify the exact location, but the carrier launcher was deployed to a certain area where it could be anticipated that an ICBM test could be conducted to verify atmospheric re-entry technology,” Lee added.

All of North Korea’s ICBM tests since 2017 have been conducted at a high angle to avoid neighboring territory. Experts said the North may eventually try to flight test its weapons at an angle closer to a normal ballistic trajectory to check whether the warhead will survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened since 2022, after Kim used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the development of his nuclear weapons and missile program.