Since Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party’s fifth-ranked official, visited Pyongyang in October and held talks with North Korean leader Kim, there have been signs of improvement in bilateral ties.
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Seoul’s three-member delegation was led by Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi, and NOrth Korea counterpart Jon Jong-su, vice director of the secretariat of North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea. “Despite the winter’s cold weather, let’s make utmost efforts to bring the spring sun to North-South relations”.
“We hope that various pending issues could be discussed smoothly through consultation”, Hwang was quoted as saying by local news agency Yonhap at the start of their meeting just north of the inter-Korean border.
This is the question that many nations want a clear answer, but given that the claim North Korea has a hydrogen bomb came from Kim Jong Un further muddles confirmation.
The confrontation began when two South Korean soldiers were seriously hurt by landmine explosions along the border. Pyongyang will likely demand the resumption of tours to its Mount Kumgang resort as a pre-condition as they were a lucrative source of income for the North. Seoul’s stance on that issue will likely be the key in how this first round of talks pans out.
The rocket force is responsible for a series of ballistic missile launches a year ago that included two medium-range Rodong-class missiles, the Treasury Department said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has suggested his nuclear-armed state has developed a hydrogen bomb, a move that would signal a major step forward in its nuclear weapons capabilities.
Efforts to establish a regular dialogue have tended to falter rapidly after an initial meeting-a reflection of the deep mistrust between two countries that have remained technically at war since the end of the 1950-53 Korean conflict.
South Korean and Western officials said there is no evidence to support Kim’s claims.
The Security Council is due to vote on the resolution next week.
“Human rights situation in the DPRK does not constitute a threat to worldwide peace and security and China opposes putting the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) by the Security Council on its provisional agenda”, he said.
He cited the Commission’s graphic description of the appalling nature of the DPRK’s political prison-camp system, where people including children have been deliberately starved, made to carry out forced labour, subjected to extrajudicial killings and summary executions, tortured and raped, where hundreds of thousands of people have died over several decades.
“There are many issues between the South and the North to be discussed and addressed”.
Two North Korean defectors were also at the Security Council meeting to put a human face and voice to the horrors they suffered.
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A senior United Nations official has called for the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court over “gross human rights violations”.
