“I am certain that China is very well aware if such a strong will isn’t followed by necessary steps, we will not be able to stop the North’s fifth and sixth nuclear tests and we can not guarantee true peace and stability”, Park said.
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The defense ministry said the drone effected a brief incursion, but swiftly returned to the North side when South Korean troops fired a series of warning shots.
Tensions are running high on the Korean Peninsula after the test last week, with propaganda volleys across the tense border and shots fired Wednesday after a Northern drone briefly flew into Southern airspace. It would require the president to sanction those engaging in transactions with North Korea related to weapons of mass destruction, arms, luxury goods, money laundering, counterfeiting and human-rights abuses. “Now, Seoul suddenly finds itself in a position where it must change its entire diplomatic approach”, South Korea’s biggest circulation newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, wrote in an editorial. Those drones were crude and decidedly low-tech, but they were still considered a potential new security threat.
On January 6, Pyongyang said it had successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test. North Korea’s state news agency later stressed in a statement that Pyongyang will continue to build up its nuclear program as “deterrence” against potential aggression from the United States.
In Pyongyang, Kim called for a bolstering of the country’s nuclear arsenal and the “detonation of more powerful H-bomb in the future”, according to state media. The U.S. and other experts think that the latest blast was about the same size as that of an atomic bomb tested by North Korea in 2013 and not stronger, as a hydrogen bomb should be.
Since Friday, South Korea has been blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda and K-pop songs from huge speakers along the border.
Park Geun-hye added that Washington was providing South Korea with security by deploying its strategic B-52 bomber in the country.
(Kim Hong-ji/Pool Photo via AP).
Beijing has recently shown signs that it’s losing patience with North Korea over its repeated provocation. His reported remarks sparked speculation in Seoul that China has no intention of joining in any harsh punishment on the North.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to pass legislation that would broaden unilateral sanctions that would empower the president to seize the assets of North Koreans involved in illicit activities and to sanction banks from other countries that do business with the Kim Jong Un government. After today’s meeting, Hwang will head to Beijing Thursday, for further talks with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei.
“Knock out the gang of Park Geun-hye who aggravated North-South relations by resuming anti-North psychological warfare broadcasts”, another said.
As Ms. Park sought to pressure China, South Korea’s foreign ministry said senior diplomats from the U.S., South Korea and Japan were gathering in Seoul on Wednesday to help prepare a “powerful and comprehensive” set of United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
Park also urged China, which is North Korea’s most important ally, to rein in its pariah neighbor. After an 11-year break, South Korea re-started them last August in response to border land mines maiming two South Korean soldiers.
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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.
