Following North Korea’s latest nuclear test, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry seemed more concerned about China and accused it of not doing enough.
Advertisement
South Korea Wednesday fired warning shots after an unidentified object from North Korea was seen flying close to the rivals’ border, the South’s military said. Such leafleting, however, by the North is still rare, though South Korean activists occasionally send anti-Pyongyang leaflets in balloons across the border. The speakers, which broadcast everything from news to K-pop, come on at random times, often at night, and can reach as far as 12 miles into North Korea.
“The loudspeakers are supposed to resume if North Korea creates an abnormal situation”, said South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok.
CNN reported on Monday from North Korea that it had been given access to a man claiming to be an American, who identified himself as Kim Dong Chul, and who said he had been arrested in North Korea on spying charges. The North previously conducted atomic bomb tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
“Security and the economy are the two axes that support a country, and we are now facing an emergency in which both of them are in crisis”, Park said in her address. Park, for her part, communicated a historically heightened sense of alarm over the test, which she called a “huge provocation against South Korea’s security, a severe threat to the survival and future of our nation, and an unacceptable challenge that threatens peace and security not just in Northeast Asia but around the world”. Representatives from Japan, South Korea and the US were set to meet separately in Seoul on Wednesday to discuss tougher sanctions against Pyongyang. But it didn’t register when President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union speech.
“Truth is the most powerful weapon toward a totalitarian regime”, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said at a news conference Wednesday.
It said North Korean scientists and technicians “are in high spirit to detonate H-bombs … capable of wiping out the whole territory of the USA all at once as it persistently moves to stifle the DPRK”.
Kim, who reportedly used to live in the Washington D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, says he was born in South Korea and became a US citizen over 30 years ago.
After this action, according to one former top USA official, “every conversation [with the North Koreans] began and ended with the same question: ‘When do we get our money back?'” Unfortunately, this pressure was lifted prematurely after the previous leader, Kim Jong-il, offered concessions on his nuclear program – concessions that ultimately were never made.
Advertisement
In a counteraction, Pyongyang also started its own propaganda broadcasts at the border area last week.
