The announcement came after the White House said the United States, South Korea and Japan had “agreed to work together to forge a united and strong worldwide response to North Korea’s latest reckless behavior”.
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The propaganda broadcasts run by the South Korean military are a key part of the South Korean psychological warfare against North Korea.
Given that the broadcasts escalated a crisis in August, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond asked South Korea to stop and give the worldwide community a chance to impose effective sanctions against North Korea. But China’s leverage over Pyongyang is mitigated, analysts say, by its overriding fear of a North Korean collapse and the prospect of a reunified, US-allied Korea directly on its border.
Nakatani said the scale of the seismic waves of the quake detected along the North Korea-China border was too weak to conclude a hydrogen bomb was tested.
The claims by North Korea that it conducted a hydrogen bomb test are the top priority for talks during Mr Hammond’s visit.
The United States and its ally South Korea are limited in their military response.
The Unification Ministry will also restrict South Koreans from entering the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex to ensure their safety and pressure the North, which needs the money the complex makes more urgently. In August, the Koreas appeared on the verge of armed conflict partly because of the broadcasts, which the South used to blare news of the outside world and criticism of Pyongyang, as well as bouncy South Korean pop music, into the tightly controlled country.
In addition to all the missiles on the chart above, there are reports that North Korea may have test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in late December.
“There is no hope to put an end to the North Korean nuclear conundrum if the US, South Korea and Japan do not change their policies toward Pyongyang”. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday urged China, which has been showing increasing frustration at the North’s continued provocations, to take a harder line.
“The nuclear test is making North Korea more isolated and turning it into the land of death”, an announcer said.
Though North Korea already is subject to strict sanctions, the United Nations has promised a resolution to further strengthen these measures.
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Even a test of an atomic bomb, a less sophisticated and less powerful weapon, would push its scientists and engineers closer to their goal of building a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a missile that can reach the USA mainland.
