South Korea is growing frustrated over China’s reluctance to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, although Beijing has shown a willingness to accept some form of penalty against its isolated neighbor, diplomatic sources said January 14.
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South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye called Wednesday for Chinese help to launch what she calls the “strongest” worldwide sanctions on North Korea over the nuclear test.
“The test is in violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions and undermines the global non-proliferation regime and increases tensions in the Korean Peninsula”, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Wednesday evening.
In a news report published by Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) on December 10, Kim Jong-un said his country “is capable of detonating an H-bomb as a nuclear state”.
Finally, the USA must assure every nation involved – North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China and even Russian Federation – that a North Korean nuclear attack on any other nation will result in a last resort American counterattack on that rogue nation.
“North Korean assets that are capable of waging nuclear war will obviously be of the highest priority”, Lance Gatling, a defence analyst and president of Nexial Research Inc., told The Telegraph.
CNN’s interview with Kim Dong-chul, who claims he was arrested for espionage, comes days after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which angered China and the United States. The country is irked by joint military maneuvers by South Korea and the United States, and views them as direct threats against its security.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test “a destabilizing act that violates Security Council resolutions and imperils collective security”, warning of the dangers of nuclearized Korean Peninsula, on Thursday during remarks on his priorities in 2016.
China has huge influence over North Korea, especially in terms of trade.
Soon after the nuclear test, Park held phone conservations with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama.
South Korean financial regulators met computer security officials at 16 banks and financial institutions and urged vigilance in the face of possible cyberattacks by North Korea, although none has been detected.
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There has been widespread speculation that the North’s current provocations are aimed at bolstering leader Kim Young Un’s efforts to consolidate power four years after he took over following the death of his father and to rally public support for him in the impoverished country.
