Asked if such a step might spur North Korea, which last week conducted its fourth nuclear test, to move more aggressively on their own atomic weapons program, the official replied: “That’s a distinct possibility”.
Advertisement
Last week, South Korea resumed broadcasting propaganda across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) via loudspeakers following Pyongyang’s claim of a successful H-bomb test, which has been hotly disputed by its neighbors and the U.S.
South Korea continued to conduct high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the border into the North on Sunday.
In one opinion poll of some 42,500 people by the state-run Global Times, 81 percent say the North’s nuclear test poses a threat to China’s security. “We know they will continue doing it, so the real question is what will we do about it”.
World powers are looking for ways to punish the North over its disputed bomb test, which, even if were not of a hydrogen bomb, is still likely to have pushed Pyongyang closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that can reach the USA mainland. The DPRK quit the talks in April 2009.
In a show of force and support for allies in the region, the United States on Sunday sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber based in Guam on a flight over South Korea, accompanied by South Korean fighter jets.
It’s pretty clear that the nuclear device detonated by North Korea last week was not a hydrogen bomb.
The B-52 was joined by South Korean F-15 fighter aircraft and U.S. F-16 fighter aircraft, the release said.
“The United States and South Korea are continuously and closely having discussions on additional deployment of strategic assets”, said Kim Min-seok, a spokesman at the South Korean Defense Ministry, declining to give specifics.
Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the United Nations (UN) Command/Combined Forces Command/US Forces Korea (USFK), made the order during a visit to the Osan Air Base, operated jointly by the US and South Korea, a USFK official said. U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, now in Yokosuka, Japan, is widely expected to be deployed on the peninsula during the U.S.-South Korea joint annual war games scheduled to kick off in February.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s foreign ministry revealed Monday that Seoul would be involved in meetings this week with the U.S., Japan and China to discuss another U.N. Security Council resolution.
Advertisement
South Korean companies – mostly small- and medium-sized – make products such as watches and fashion goods with cheap labor from North Korea. Perhaps the prospect of a military buildup by the US on the peninsula might be enough to persuade them to act, although it’s unclear whether China has the kind of influence that’s needed to control the North at this point.
