North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, is attempting to justify the nuclear test by calling it “a self-defensive measure to defend the sovereignty of the country and vital rights of the nation”.
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“Considering the North Korean government’s deceptive and reckless ways that was reaffirmed by its latest nuclear test, an additional North Korean provocation can take place any time”, Ms Park said, adding that Seoul and Washington were discussing the transfer of further U.S. “strategic assets” to the peninsula. “That’s why I was shocked that the president made no mention of North Korea’s recent nuclear test during his speech”.
South Korean army soldiers patrol by ribbons, wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas, attached on the barbed-wire fence in Paju, near the border with North Korea.
In an annual press conference, Ms Park said the global community’s response “must differ from the past”, without giving details, and that China’s help was crucial.
“Sanctions are useless unless they cause pain and bring about changes in North Korea”, Park told a select group of reporters at her New Year’s news conference.
“Back then I was too busy smuggling in order to make money and eat so I wasn’t interested in that kind of thing”, said Kim Dan-bi, a North Korean defector who left in 2011 and now lives in South Korea, referring to earlier nuclear tests.
The leaflets have been found close to the towns of Paju and Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, Yonhap News reported. However, what’s more disappointing is that high-level communication between the two sides was noticeably absent after the nuclear test. Hong, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said that “China and the ROK have been in close communication and coordination on the Korean nuclear issue and the situation on the Korean Peninsula”.
A TV screen shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at an electronics store in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016.
In the meantime, experts doubt that Pyongyang did test the H-bomb and later agreed the device was an atomic bomb similar to those in three previous tests.
The broadcasts – a high-decibel mix of K-pop and anti-North messages – are a red rag to Pyongyang, which had threatened artillery strikes on the loudspeaker units when they were used during a cross-border crisis a year ago.
The B-52 bomber, a plane that can carry nuclear bombs and cruise missiles, is said to be one of the US weapons about which North Korea has the deepest concern.
Bitterly antagonized by the South Korean action, the North has reportedly reinforced frontline troops.
“The Kim regime’s continued efforts to develop a nuclear arsenal is a direct threat to the United States”, said the bill’s sponsor, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce.
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Shi Yinhong, professor of worldwide relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said it is likely China would support any new United Nations sanctions against North Korea, but added it was hard to say if it would take any further unilateral action against Pyongyang.
