In this photo provided by the South Korean military on July, 27, 2016, vinyl bags carrying North Korean leaflets are displayed on a table.
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Kerry, the top US diplomat, told the southeast Asian gathering that if Iran can give up nuclear weapons development, as it did in last year’s negotiated pact with the USA and five other world powers, so can North Korea.
This week, leaders from the US, Russia, China, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea have gathered in the Laotian capital of Vientiane to negotiate an end to the North’s nuclear program. In February, March, April, May, continually they have done missile tests.
“Whether we conduct an additional nuclear test or not depends entirely on the U.S.’ attitude”, Ri said.
“Together we are determined…to make absolutely certain that DPRK understands that there are real consequences for these actions”. Kerry, who has held a flurry of closed-door meetings with his regional counterparts over the last two days, said efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula had dominated discussions.
“[The] issue that came up in almost every meeting I had so far this week is the provocative and deeply concerning behavior of the DPRK”.
In Laos, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the importance of pressuring the North, saying the country’s actions “present a very serious threat not just to this region, but to global peace and security” and the regime has been flouting U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Earlier in the day, Kerry had referred to Iran and encouraged North Korea to follow its example.
The latest discovery of propaganda leaflets came after North Korean recently warned of unspecified “physical” measures in response to a USA plan to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea.
“North Korea intentionally floated the leaflets toward the mouth of the Han River and were picked up by guard troops near Gimpo”, the spokesman said, citing an analysis by relevant government officials.
Kim called North Korea a “responsible nuclear weapons state” at the May congress.
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North Korea’s Ri met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Monday on the sidelines of the Laos meeting but few details have been released. Washington said the movie, which tells the story of a fictional Central Intelligence Agency plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong Un, was the motivation behind a giant North Korean hack attack against Sony Pictures.
