North Korean propaganda leaflets have been spotted in Seoul and its adjacent areas, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday, with many of them demanding Seoul halt its loudspeaker broadcasts, which started in retaliation of the communist country’s recent nuclear test.
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While China last week urged North Korea to stick to its denuclearization pledges and avoid action that would make the situation worse, it also said it did not hold the key to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.
In a show of strength on Sunday, a nuclear-capable US B-52 bomber – flanked by South Korean F-15 fighter jets and US F-16 planes – flew over Osan Air Base, about 70km south of the inter-Korean border.
Pyongyang is under United Nations sanctions over launching missiles considered by the USA and South Korea as ballistic and aimed at delivering nuclear warheads.
The World Economic Forum withdrew its invitation for North Korea’s foreign minister to attend its annual Davos meeting, which was to have been the country’s first participation in the event in 18 years, because of the nuclear test.
Park said the U.N. Security Council’s fresh resolution on the DPRK, now under discussion, would include a variety of new sanctions on finance and trade, portraying it as the strong and comprehensive one that will cause a change in the DPRK’s behavior.
Israel, the Middle East’s sole but undeclared nuclear power, joined global condemnation of last week’s North Korean nuclear test on Tuesday.
South Korean army soldiers gather to search for suspected North Korean leaflets in Seoul.
As well as working with the United Nations to adopt the “strongest” resolution to penalise North Korea, Seoul would also discuss additional “punitive sanctions” with the USA and its allies, Park said.
The drone returned back to the north after warning shots.
Reuters quoted an American official on Monday as saying that Seoul and Washington are not considering redeploying tactical American nuclear weapons that were withdrawn from South Korea in 1991. Under the legislation, sanctions will be imposed on individuals or entities that assist North Korea with its nuclear weapons program.
Answering a question about whether Seoul would consider ending its involvement in the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone, just north of the border, Ms Park said its future depended on Pyongyang’s actions.
“The five pending labor-related bills are improvement plans to create jobs for youths and strengthen the social safety network”, she said.
Beijing is seen as reluctant to clamp down on the North because of fears that a toppled government in Pyongyang would lead to millions of desperate North Koreans flooding across the border to China.
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South Korean activists occasionally send anti-Pyongyang leaflets in balloons across the border.
