North Korea’s new foreign minister and former nuclear negotiator Ri Yong-Ho is also attending the meeting hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Now that North Korea has made clear that it is “going for broke” in developing and refining a nuclear deterrent, it’s not surprising that the US and South Korea have thrown down the gauntlet in response by jointly agreeing to deploy an anti-missile system. A second successful test was reported in January 2013.
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The armistice, signed July 27, 1953, in the border truce village of Panmunjeom, ended open fighting, but a formal peace treaty has never been signed, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war.
North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the following month, drawing widespread worldwide condemnation and leading the U.N. Security Council to impose the harshest sanctions ever imposed on the regime.
“And recently they committed the most grave hostility by insulting our Dear Leader”, Ri said, referring to the USA decision to personally blacklist Kim Jong-Un over human rights abuses. “In February, March, April, May, continually they have done missile tests”, he said.
The issue of the North’s weapons programme has dominated this week’s talks in Vientiane – a rare opportunity for all the members of the six-party process to be in the same room.
The missiles flew 500-600 km (300-360 miles) into the sea off its east coast and could have hit anywhere in South Korea if the North intended, the South’s military said.
“It’s hard to speak in detail, but as there is already a framework for implementing sanctions internationally, we agreed to make intensive efforts in the next two to three months.to cut off cash flows into North Korea as much as possible so as to limit North Korea’s ability to continue nuclear development”, he said. “The United States will have to pay dearly a terrifying price”.
“North Korea’s actions present a very serious threat, not just to this region but to worldwide peace and security”. He urged the country to follow the lead of Iran, which hammered out a deal to end its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions. Had there been such an article, the Security Council should have taken action for every nuclear and ballistic missile test conducted by other countries, he said.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice clearly explained to Chinese officials that the THAAD missile defense system the U.S. plans to deploy in South Korea won’t hurt China’s security interests, and both sides achieved “a certain amount of clarity on that”, a senior official said.
China is, however, wary of pushing the North too far, fearing a regime collapse that could create a refugee crisis on its border and swing the regional balance of power towards the US.
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“Recently they committed the most grave hostility by insulting our Dear Leader”, he said. 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.
