The top U.S. intelligence official says North Korea is probably prepared to conduct another nuclear test “on short notice.”

Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence, presented the assessment Tuesday in her opening remarks during a session of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. 

Gabbard also predicted that North Korea will continue to conduct intercontinental ballistic missile flight tests to demonstrate its increasing capabilities as leverage in future negotiations.

She continued that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is pursuing stronger strategic and conventional capabilities that can target U.S. forces and allies in the region, as well as the U.S. mainland. 

Gabbard said this is to bolster his country’s leverage and stature, defend his regime, and achieve “at least tacit recognition as a nuclear weapons power.”

She added that the solidified strategic partnership with Russia brings in more financial, military and diplomatic support for Kim, reduces the country’s dependence on China, and provides the North Korean military with real-life combat experience.

Meanwhile, Gabbard’s office issued the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community on Tuesday, saying Kim has “no intention” of negotiating away his strategic weapons programs, which he perceives as a “guarantor of regime security and national pride.”