South Korea announced plans to restart propaganda broadcasts over its border with North Korea, a day after Pyongyang claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb.
Advertisement
The United States, South Korea and Japan have agreed to launch a united and strong worldwide response to North Korea’s apparent fourth nuclear test, even as experts scrambled to find more details about the detonation.
“The North’s nuclear test violated its obligations and commitments to the global community and failed to honor the August 25 agreement” between the two Koreas, said Cho Tae-yong of the Office of National Security after a meeting of the National Security Council.
If there’s one thing guaranteed to annoy North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un, it’s anything that suggests a free, westernised society to the population of North Korea.
Tensions between the countries over the suspected nuke test have put a dent in tourism, a South Korean business owner who lives in a city close to the border with the north said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi exchanged views Thursday evening with his US counterpart John Kerry on the situation on the Korean Peninsula, underscoring China’s firm stand on promoting denuclearization and safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula. North Korea has yet to respond to South Korea’s plan, but a previous propaganda push only angered the notoriously secretive country that has threatened military action in the past.
Diplomats said that could mean an expansion of sanctions against Pyongyang, although major powers might baulk at an all-out economic offensive.
“There is no hope to put an end to the North Korean nuclear conundrum if the US, South Korea and Japan do not change their policies toward Pyongyang”, it said.
Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond yesterday urged the South to refrain from rising to the North’s bait.
The United Nations has already promised to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang.
Advertisement
On Thursday, President Barack Obama also spoke with the leaders of the two main USA allies in Asia – and North Korean neighbours – South Korea and Japan. White House spokesman Josh Earnest tells reporters that the USA will be “collecting additional evidence” and working closely with other countries in the region to learn more about the North Korean test.
