US President Barack Obama held talks on Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos.
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President Obama vowed Tuesday to toughen worldwide sanctions against North Korea after its government conducted a test missile launch as world leaders gathered for summits in Asia.
The allies vowed to rev up their defense capabilties and detering power to suppress North Korea’s nuclear proliferation expressing Seoul and Washington’s firm stance against Pyongyang’s continued provocations. ed:jm “Let me make clear that South Korea and the USA will counter any kind of provocation from North Korea using all means available”.
South Korea’s defence ministry said the tests were of Rodong missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers. The launch also fired missiles into the Japanese defense zone, again without warning.
Hahn Choong Hee, South Korea’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said Pyongyang is spending “a considerable amount” of its resources in developing weapons of mass destruction while sacrificing the living conditions of North Koreans.
“So we are going to work diligently together with the most recent United Nations sanctions that are already placing North Korea under the most intense sanctions regime ever”, Obama said.
North Korea claimed that test involved a hydrogen bomb and the reclusive state is fast developing the technology to launch ballistic missiles from submarines.
The White House noted the US remains committed to moving ahead with the planned deployment of a major anti-missile system in South Korea.
The meeting convened after the United States, South Korea and Japan requested an emergency assembly in response to the missile tests.
The North’s KCNA news agency said Kim personally oversaw Monday’s missile firing, which he “appreciated as flawless”.
The press statement urged all United Nations member states “to redouble their efforts” to implement sanctions against Pyongyang, including the toughest measures in two decades imposed by the council in March.
“We want to make sure we’re cutting off all the lifelines that North Korea tries to grab onto”, said Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes.
This undated picture, released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 6, 2016, shows the fire drill of ballistic rockets by Hwasong artillery units at an undisclosed location in North Korea. “And President Park and I agreed that the entire global community needs to implement these sanctions fully and hold North Korea accountable”. China has urged South Korea and the U.S.to scrap the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, saying it is merely meant to spy on the China.
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Ms Power said North Korea has carried out 22 missile launches so far this year and the latest hit “within 300 kilometres of Japan’s coast”.
