Abiding by the Security Council’s latest sanctions against Pyongyang, China on Tuesday said that it is banning import of gold and rare earthen material from North Korea.
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The CRS report, meanwhile, said that USA officials are also concerned about the “possibility that a small-scale North Korean provocation against South Korea is more likely to escalate than it was previously, due in part to South Korea’s stated intention to respond more forcefully to an attack”.
North Korea test-launched two Rodong missiles last month, flouting United Nations resolutions that ban the country from developing or testing ballistic missile technology.
The South Korean government official said the focus now should be on implementing these sanctions, adding there may be a level of chaos in the country when the cash starts to dry up but “at this point the leadership of Kim Jong Un is seemingly unshakeable”.
Whether the exhaust plumes mean “re-processing additional plutonium is under way or will be in the near future remains unclear”, analysts at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University concluded. “Although both states have been more restrained in this a year ago in terms of cyber activity directed against us, they remain quite active and are steadily improving their capabilities”, Adm. Michael S. Rogers said, according to Yonhap.
South Korea has previously said North Korea had made progress in its efforts to miniaturize a nuclear warhead but the capability was incomplete.
The United States, South Korea’s staunch ally, agreed with the claims.
Satellite images suggest “significant activity” is taking place at a North Korean laboratory that could separate plutonium for nuclear weapons.
US-based experts believe that North Korea may already have roughly 10 bombs.
In previous statements, North Korea had said the Blue House should be destroyed and did not rule out the assassination of South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Responding to this, the UN Security Council imposed its toughest sanctions yet.
Experts have predicted that the delivery vehicle for the North’s first nuclear warhead would be the medium-range Rodong missile, rather than an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which the North has yet to test. “We are looking into… and closely monitoring the situation”, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said during a press conference Tuesday.
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Over the past month, Pyongyang has issued repeated threats of strikes against Seoul and Washington, largely in response to annual South Korea-US war games that kicked off in early March.
