“North Korea’s nuclear test is a unsafe escalation and poses an unacceptable threat”, Brooks said in a statement on Tuesday.
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The United States wants China to do more, with U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter last week singling out the role he said China should play in curbing its neighbour.
Nevertheless, North Korea is not like Iran and only more global sanctions – if not something as effective as a total embargo – would be limited in pressuring the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Two huge United States bombers flew over South Korea Tuesday in a show of force against the North as a top U.S. envoy said China must help close loopholes in sanctions following Pyongyang’s largest-ever nuclear test. It re-opened its border – the “Friendship Bridge” – with the North after a brief break because of the 9 September nuclear test. North Korea is the most completely closed society of the world. South Korea is already under the shield of USA extended deterrence, but having some of them on stand-by on or near the peninsula – instead of places like Guam – would send an utterly different message to the North.
Japan, in separate resolutions adopted by two of its parliamentary committees, on Wednesday condemned North Korea for conducting its fifth nuclear test.
Recent nuclear tests carried out by Kim Jong-un are “deeply alarming”, said the former head of America’s nuclear laboratory Siegfried Hecker. Beijing doesn’t want to see a collapsed North Korean regime, because that could bring the US defense umbrella up to China’s southern border.
After last week’s test, the North’s nuclear weapons institute said it would take unspecified measures to further boost its nuclear capability, which analysts said hinted at a possible sixth nuclear test.
The US with other countries sought to impose more sanctions on North Korea after its latest nuclear test, said an official on Tuesday in Seoul. Ministry officials refused to say what specific evidence pointed to another possible nuclear test.
Seoul, Washington and their allies vowed to apply more pressure and sanctions after the test, the second this year.
“If North Koreans are ready to talk to us sincerely about the denuclearization, I think we can work with them [through] the six party process”, he said, South Korea’s Yonhap News reported Tuesday.
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“These flights demonstrate the solidarity between South Korea, the United States, and Japan to defend against North Korea’s provocative and destabilizing actions”, US Pacific Commander Adm. Harry Harris said in a statement. The aim was reportedly to show solidarity with the USA allies in the region, and a show of force against Kim Jong Un’s regime.
