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South Korea works with Japan and USA to develop “bone-numbing” sanctions

South Korean watch a television broadcast reporting the North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb Test at the Seoul Railway Station on January 6, 2016 in Seoul, South Korea.

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Seoul media says South Korea has fired warning shots after North Korean drone seen across border. South Korea “strongly” condemned North Korea’s shock hydrogen bomb test and vowed to take “all necessary measures” to penalise its nuclear-armed neighbour.

“This is the surest and most effective mean of psychological warfare against North Korea” now, Park said in a nationally televised address.

In an annual press conference, Ms Park said the worldwide community’s response “must differ from the past”, without giving details, and that China’s help was crucial.

“It was identified that the leaflets were scattered from the North side yesterday afternoon and early this morning, and our military is closely watching the movements of the North Korean military”, he added.

While the North has responded with its own broadcasts, it also emerged Wednesday that the reclusive state has adopted another strategy commonly employed by activists south of the border.

China, the closest thing North Korea has to a friend, has previously used its veto power to ensure that multilateral sanctions are not so severe as to cause its fragile neighbor to collapse, although Beijing did allow a significant expansion of sanctions after Pyongyang’s 2013 nuclear test. “It may be mistaken to expect that China will cooperate on severe sanctions given that South Korea and the U.S. are simply calling for pressure”.

Bitterly antagonized by the South Korean action, the North has reportedly reinforced frontline troops. China, a country that can exert influence on North Korea, must fully cooperate with other nations in adopting the resolution and strictly implementing it.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea on Wednesday fired 20 machine gun warning shots after a North Korean drone briefly crossed the rivals’ border, officials said, the first shots fired in a Cold War-style standoff between the Koreas in the wake of the North’s nuclear test last week.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry couldn’t immediately confirm the report.

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.

Sung Kim, the special USA representative for North Korea policy, met with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Seoul on Wednesday and said the three agreed that a “meaningful” new sanctions resolution is needed from the Security Council.

For these reasons, the world might consider paying more substantive attention to North Korea on a continual basis.

The UNSC imposed a number of sanctions against the country after it carried out the tests.

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The focus is expected to be on how to formulate a united global response against North Korea’s provocation. But in a telephone conversation with his South Korean counterpart Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made it clear that Beijing supports dialogue to resolve the nuclear standoff.

South Korea's President Park Geun-hye answers a reporter's question during her New Year news conference at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul