“By stepping back from that very provocative position, they can appear to be looking conciliatory, but I would argue any demand from the North that the USA suspend its long-term military drills on the Korean peninsula is a non-starter”.
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Less than a week before the speech, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. Korea’s Joong Ang Daily quotes presidential adviser Ben Rhodes as saying that leaving North Korean leader Kim Jong Un out of the speech was a deliberate decision, depriving him of undue attention.
“We have again confirmed that Japan, South Korea and the United States are prepared to react immediately to any provocation by the DPRK”, Lim said after the close of trilateral talks between the three countries’ vice foreign ministers in Tokyo, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The United States has some 28,500 troops in South Korea.
North Korea said it could stop its nuclear tests in exchange for signing a peace treaty with the United States and a stop to annual military exercises between the USA and South Korea.
China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is North Korea’s economic benefactor, but traditional ties have become strained as Beijing’s patience has worn thin with Pyongyang’s behaviour and unwillingness to rein in its nuclear weapons ambitions.
North Korea said on January 6 it had tested a hydrogen bomb, provoking condemnation from its neighbors and the United States. The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice. Following its second and third nuclear tests in 2009 and 2013, North Korea launched similar cyber attacks against the South.
Cautious optimism is reemerging that driven by recent breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba, U.S. President Barack Obama could approach the North afresh in a bid to consolidate his foreign policy legacy.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that seeks to deny the Pyongyang government the hard currency it needs for its nuclear weapons program by imposing stronger sanctions.
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Despite differences over the issue of new Security Council resolutions, the worldwide community must take a “clear and consistent” direction and return to six-party talks, Wang said.
