North Korea appears to be implying that it could cancel the reunions if the global community and South Korea impose sanctions in response to a North Korean long-range rocket launch or nuclear test. “The reunions of the divided family members and relatives have been placed in a situation that is as perilous as thin ice because of the rashly confrontational behavior of the South Korean government”.
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Recently, North Korea has ratcheted up the rhetoric regarding its missile and nuclear weapons programs. North Korea’s state media said the country has restarted all its nuclear facilities.
The loudspeaker broadcasts served as a critical factor this time to bring North Korean to the negotiation table and to compromise with the South. Recent events and the subsequent inter-Korean deal have provided an important lesson for South Korea: that Seoul possesses a strong deterrent against North Korea’s provocations in the option to resume loudspeaker broadcasts if Pyongyang undertakes provocations again.
Shin expects Pyongyang to take more time to choose an optimal political environment for the launch.
“North Korea presents an ongoing security challenge to everybody”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters before the meeting.
“Any launch of projectiles by North Korea using ballistic missile technology violates relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions”, he said.
Shin Sang-jin, a professor at Kwangwoon University who specializes in relations between China and North Korea, warned that Beijing’s pressure tactics against Pyongyang could backfire. The fact that deliberations for holding a soccer game between North and South Korean workers sometime in October are continuing amid all this is a small but hopeful sign.
This week, the United States repeated its call for North Korea to denuclearize. Yet despite these military threats, Park maintained a tough posture by warning of a strong retaliation against North Korea and by ignoring Pyongyang’s threat that it would launch strong military action if South Korea didn’t halt its anti-North Korean broadcasts within 48 hours.
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North Korea has been trying to flawless a multi-stage long-range rocket for decades, and used one to put its first satellite into space in late 2012 after several failures.
