Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Hong-kyun, South Korea’s senior representative to the Talks, met with reporters at the South Korean embassy in Beijing that morning to share the results of his meeting the day before with his Chinese counterpart, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Wu Dawei.
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North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho addresses the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Friday, Sept. 23, 2016.
“We will never remain onlookers on this, and the United States will have to face tremendous consequences beyond imagination”, Ri said.
Tension between North and South Korea is nothing new, but things are really coming to a head of late.
Russel said that a new United Nations resolution on North Korea would be agreed soon, imposing further sanctions and tightening existing ones against the country.
The United States flew two B1-Bs over South Korea on Wednesday in the second such flight since the September 9 test. U.S. Forces Korea said the flights were a show of force and of the U.S. commitment to preserve the security of the peninsula and the region.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said Friday that the sole way to defend itself against the U.S. is “going nuclear”.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Thursday told the U.N. General Assembly that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs presented “a direct existential threat” and said his country had no choice but to take “necessary defensive measures”.
This round of verbal sparring between North and South Korea follows the release of a Korean People’s Army (KPA) statement in which the KPA threatened to reduce Seoul to ashes and wipe USA bases off the face of the Earth.
Mr Kerry vowed that the USA would defend its own citizens against the North Korean threat and honor its security commitments to its allies.
There is no evidence in the U.N. Charter or worldwide law that stipulates nuclear and ballistic missile tests are a threat or should be outlawed, Ri said.
Ri dismissed the Security Council resolutions as unfair.
But the foreign minister described the nuclear explosions as “practical countermeasures” against the United States and a demonstration of the “strongest-ever will” of North Korea s ruling party and people. “It shows that North Korea is totally ridiculing the authority of the General Assembly and the Security Council”, he added.
“The threat to the worldwide community has become increasingly grave and all the more realistic”, he said Wednesday.
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There is no debate that the American current policy of turning to economic sanctions against North Korea in an effort to compel that nation into halting its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs has been a failure; North Korea is not responding to the pressures of economic sanctions.
