China’s Hua said the North Korean nuclear issue can only be resolved through “dialogue and consultation”. He did not elaborate on what loopholes he was referring to.
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China has agreed to allow sanctions at the U.N. Security Council after previous tests by Pyongyang, and says it has restricted shipments of jet fuel and imports of certain minerals from North Korea, which otherwise remains in nearly total isolation from the world.
The speculation about any new nuclear test by the North comes three days after it conducted its fifth atomic bomb explosion. But Yonhap news agency, citing unidentified Seoul government sources, reported Monday there were signs the North had finished test preparations at one tunnel that has never been used.
Mr Yun said the latest tests showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was unlikely to change course and tougher sanctions were needed to apply “unbearable pain on the North to leave no choice but to change”.
Spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun declined to give more information beyond saying a potential test could take place in an unused tunnel at the Punggy-ri site where North Korean has previously carried out tests in its effort to develop nuclear warheads that can fit on a missile.
A U.S. special envoy for the isolated state, Sung Kim, will travel to Seoul on Monday after discussing cooperation among neighbouring countries in Tokyo in the wake of the North’s latest nuclear test.
Political analysts said Beijing has become “lukewarm” in cooperating with the United Nations and the USA in working on the denuclearization of Pyongyang with the THAAD deployment in Seoul.
The South Korean defense ministry has also presented the “Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation” to the national assembly, “aimed at wiping a certain section of Pyongyang completely off the map”, Yonhap quoted a military source as saying. The allies said they are working to have it operational by the end of 2017.
Some argue that South Korea’s nuclear armament is the only effective way to deter a provocative North Korea.
South Korea is pushing for more sanctions against Pyongyang to close what it says were loopholes left in the last United Nations Security Council resolution adopted in March.
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The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The United States, Britain and France – three of the five veto-wielding permanent members – pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.
