South Korea's intelligence agency has expressed concern that North Korea is miniaturizing nuclear weapons at a pace much faster than expected.

In the wake of North Korea's nuclear test Friday morning, the parliament's intelligence committee held an emergency meeting later in the day attended by National Intelligence Service(NIS) Director Lee Byung-ho.

Ranking members of the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea at the committee quoted the NIS chief as saying that North Korea's aim is to miniaturize nuclear weapons so they can be mounted on Scud missiles. The spy agency assessed it will be difficult to deploy them in one to two years, but the North was progressing fast in its weapons development. The agency also said the regime was conducting nuclear tests in shorter intervals and could carry out more tests at any time.

Asked why the NIS was unable to forecast the North's nuclear test, the agency said there were sufficient signals pointing to a nuclear test.

The NIS said that it was highly probable for Pyongyang to take some kind of action on September ninth, which marks the North's National Foundation Day. But the NIS admitted that it could not precisely forecast the North would conduct a nuclear test on the day. 

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