South Korea had warned the broadcasts would resume. Mr. Yi has yet to respond to the South Korean foreign minister’s request for a telephone conference.
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But he continued, “we have to be bigger than the North Koreans….”
According to South Korean media, the broadcasts include K-pop – rap and dance music by the country’s well-known boy and girl bands – and talk about sensitive topics like human rights and lifestyles.
Last August, the two countries reportedly exchanged artillery fire over the issue before reaching a deal that ended the broadcasts and pledged other measures to ease tensions between the two Koreas.
The U.S., China and Russian Federation are three of the veto-wielding five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Wednesday, its fourth, has drawn widespread criticism from across the region and across the globe.
Fallon and Hammond are in Japan for talks later Friday with their Japanese counterparts and are also expected to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
South Korean and USA military leaders also discussed the deployment of US “strategic assets” in the wake of the North’s test, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.
John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, has urged China to get tough with North Korea after Pyongyang reportedly conducted a nuclear test earlier this week. B-2 and B-52 bombers are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
“It is essential, as ever, that the worldwide community is united in its approach and will work on such measures in a new Security Council resolution”, he added.
The North’s claim of a successful test drew extreme skepticism overseas. He said that China’s approach to North Korea had failed.
“We have to face the reality that sanctions alone will not leverage the North Korean policy in the absence of a fundamental change in Chinese policy”, DeThomas said.
Cheong Seong-chang, director of unification strategy at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said Pyongyang was likely to protest Seoul’s move strongly, with possible military provocations.
Then again Seoul had said that it would resume its broadcasts in the case of North Korean misbehavior.
US Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives could join forces in a rare display of unity to further tighten sanctions on North Korea. Other nations may either have it or are working on it, despite a worldwide effort to contain such proliferation.
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The legislation was passed by the House foreign affairs committee last February but it was stalled until Pyongyang jolted the world by setting off an underground nuclear bomb test.
