North Korea claimed five years ago it had successfully developed fusion technology.
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Tensions have been escalating further in recent days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed the communist state has developed a hydrogen bomb, which may signal a major step forward in its nuclear capabilities, though Seoul officials remain unconvinced of the claim’s veracity.
The North was expected to seek the resumption of cross-border tours from the South to its Mount Kumgang resort, a once-lucrative source of cash for the impoverished state that was suspended in 2008.
The United States on Tuesday sanctioned North Korea’s Strategic Rocket Force and blacklisted six individuals, two banks and three shipping firms thought to be involved in arms trade for “engaging in activities that have materially contributed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery”.
And a South Korean defense minister said, “We are closely monitoring and tracking any and all of North Korea’s nuclear activities”.
South Korea has placed top priority on resolving the issue of separated families as time is running out for the surviving 66,000 family members in South Korea, most of which are over 80.
“Since the 1980s there is some evidence to suggest a program of developing highly enriched uranium, alongside plutonium, but it’s hard to see how they could have made the leap from that to evidence of a working hydrogen bomb”, he told CNN.
Ties were frayed this summer after a landmine explosion in August maimed two South Korean soldiers, prompting artillery fire from the South’s military, and similar responses from the North.
The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The meeting was held on the North Korean side of the border in the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone – which opened in 2004 and has survived as a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
The vice-minister level talks started Friday morning with South Korea’s vice minister of unification Hwang Boo-Gi meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Jon Jong-Su.
Two North Korean defectors were also at the Security Council meeting to put a human face and voice to the horrors they suffered.
“We believe it is critical for the council to continue to shine a light on the abuses in North Korea and speak regularly about the DPRK’s human rights situation – and what we can do to change it – for as long as the crimes committed there persist”, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said in a statement.
Zagaynov said the discussion of irrelevant issues leads to “duplicating functions” of the Security Council thus making its work less efficient.
“North Korea hasn’t even succeeded at minimizing a nuclear warhead”.
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Of course, Russian Federation and China will not easily abandon their opposition.
