South Korea is set to start broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the border on Friday, believed to be the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as part of its retaliation for the North’s recent nuclear test.
Advertisement
South Korean officials said they may restart border propaganda broadcasts that Seoul had halted a year ago.
In a phone conference Wednesday, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and South Korean Minister of National Defense Han Min-koo “agreed that North Korea’s provocations should have consequences”, according to a readout of the call from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
The North’s claim of a successful test drew extreme skepticism overseas.
“China had a particular approach that it wanted to make and we agreed and gave them time to implement that”, Kerry told reporters.
China’s role in influencing North Korea is again in the spotlight following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test. Beijing is the country’s main ally and several figures including Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump have demanded China do more.
“Today in my conversation with the Chinese I made it very clear: That has not worked and we can not continue business as usual”, he said. For current sanctions and any new penalties to work, better co-operation and stronger implementation from China is seen as key.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said more details on the vote will be announced in the near future.
The “total success” of the test, which took place at 10:00 a.m. Pyongyang time (0130 GMT), meant that the DPRK has “proudly joined the advanced ranks of nuclear weapons states possessed of even H-bomb”, Pyongyang said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA. Media said the assets could include B-2 and B-52 bombers, and a nuclear-powered submarine.
At a U.N. Security Council emergency session, diplomats pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions against North Korea, saying its test was a “clear violation” of previous U.N. resolutions.
“We always feel nervous that (North Korea) might fire shells here”.
Information from The Washington Post was included in this story. Washington sent a pair of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over South Korea in a show of force after North Korea last tested a nuclear device in 2013. While it is impossible to clearly measure its effects, the reaction of the North Korean regime suggests it fears their impact.
Tensions between the countries over the suspected nuke test have put a dent in tourism, a South Korean business owner who lives in a city close to the border with the north said. When Seoul resumed them after the mine attack, the North immediately threatened to shoot them down and rain hellfire on the South, and then rushed to the negotiating table. At high-level inter-Korean talks at the truce village in August, Pyongyang expressed regret over land mine explosions in the DMZ and Seoul, in return, suspended its retaliatory psychological warfare across the border.
The first concrete response to North Korea’s claimed detonation of an underground H-bomb will be the blasting of “K-pop” hip-hop and rock across the demilitarized zone while the allies consider tougher sanctions and other “serious consequences”.
Advertisement
Kerry did not elaborate on what the USA government wants China to do next.
