“And of greater significance”, he said, “North Korea continues to aggressively develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, in direct violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions”.
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Moon Sang-Gyun, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, speaks during a press briefing on North Korea’s rocket launch, at the Defense Ministry in Seoul.
The standoff between Washington and Pyongyang further escalated on February 7, after North Korea successfully launched a long-range missile allegedly carrying an earth observation satellite.
All North Korean ships including those for humanitarian purposes and other foreign-flagged vessels that make a port call to the North are also banned from entering Japan. For all its empty anti-imperialist posturing, Pyongyang’s actions are aimed at securing relations with the major powers and integrating North Korea into the global market. But he added that, now that North Korea says it has an H-bomb – a claim disputed by some outside experts – the USA might be better advised to focus on negotiating a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War.
Left-leaning media outlets within the South have also argued that THAAD would not be effective in defending against North Korean missiles fired from across the border.
The government “would firmly respond to North Korea’s reckless provocations” with an unwavering principle, Cheong Wa Dae, from South Korea’s presidential office said, as cited by the Yonhap news agency. At the same time, we must neglect efforts to find a fundamental solution to the problem of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles. While the global community has imposed tougher sanctions on North Korea after each nuclear test, this has only intensified the North Korean regime’s sense of crisis and led to more nuclear tests. These troops operate in alliance with the 655,000-strong South Korean armed forces, while North Korea fields a military of 1.19 million service members, according to a tabulation by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
South Korea and the US are set to start working-level talks soon on the deployment of the controversial missile defense system.
North Korea has threatened to attack South Korea and the United States if the two allies conduct joint drills in March.
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The Daily Mail suggests that, while the number of US troops is twice that expected for this particular operation, it is more in the territory of four times the number of troops the United States typically commits to similar endeavors.
