The minister said Seoul must join forces with the worldwide community and force the North Korean leader to surrender his nuclear ambitions through additional sanctions.
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The U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, Sung Kim, said on Sunday that they would be “working very closely in the Security Council and beyond to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea’s latest actions”.
The plan is to carry out pre-emptive strikes against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the country’s military leadership if any signs of an imminent use of nuclear weapons is detected or in case of a war, the official explained.
North Korea is slamming the latest sanctions threatened by U.S. President Barack Obama after its fifth nuclear test, calling any sanctions “laughable”.
“The group of Obama’s running around and talking about meaningless sanctions until today is highly laughable, when their “strategic patience” policy is completely worn out and they are close to packing up to move out,” state-run KCNA news agency cited a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman as saying in a statement later on Sunday.
Yun’s statement was made during a meeting with senior diplomats Saturday, a day after North Korea carried out its fifth nuclear test and the UN Security Council chose to mull a new resolution. South Korea government has been facing criticism within the country for isolating the North that has failed to deter its nuclear ambitions.
“In addition to sanctions in the security council, both the US and Japan, together with [South Korea], will be looking at any unilateral measures as well as bilateral measures as well as possible trilateral cooperation”.
According to The Guardian, the spokesman for North Korea said the regime is demanding that the world recognize that the regime is a legitimate nuclear state.
“As Commander in Chief, I have a responsibility to safeguard the American people and ensure that the United States is leading the worldwide community in responding to this threat and North Korea’s other provocations with commensurate resolve and condemnation”, said Obama. The US, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions.
“North Korea, like so many other things, is one more Hillary Clinton failure”, he was reported as saying.
“I count on the security council to remain united and take appropriate action”.
“China can no longer protect a certain aspect (of its trade with North Korea).We expect it to play a big role (in imposing economic restraint on the North)”, he said, hinting a possibility of the trade between the two traditional allies becoming the prime target of a new round of sanctions.
The global community is considering its response.
North Korea in a latest statement said the test was of a “nuclear warhead that has been standardised to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets”.
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In the wake of its nuclear warhead test, the worldwide community has voiced its strong condemnation over the development.
