Policymakers might point to the “Leap Day Agreement” in 2012 in which North Korea agreed on a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests in exchange for food assistance to argue that a nuclear deal with North Korea is possible.
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Last week, Seoul suspended cooperation with Pyongyang at the jointly-run Kaesong industrial park following a launch of a long-range ballistic rocket in the North. In return, Pyongyang severed all emergency contact lines with the South.
“The government will take strong and effective measures for the North to come to the bone-numbing realisation that nuclear development will not help its survival but rather it will only speed up the collapse of the regime”.
On the contrary she said Seoul’s attempts at engagement only emboldened the North Korean leadership to believe that it can provoke and threaten the South and defy the worldwide community without outcome.
“Seventy percent of the funds to the KIC have flowed into the party for nuclear weapons and missile development, luxury goods and the regime’s achievements, though it is hard to confirm the exact amount for the nuclear program and missile development”, the press release reads.
Her comments, made on the birthday of late dictator Kim Jong-il, are likely to infuriate North Korean officials.
Pyongyang responded by saying it would expel all South Koreans from Kaesong and freeze assets there.
South Korea and the United States are rushing to mete out strong unilateral sanctions on North Korea, stepping up pressure on China to move toward tougher U.N. Security Council sanctions against the rogue state for its nuclear and missile provocations.
South Korea subsequently accused the North of giving South Koreans a “very short deadline to leave”.
“I’ve said there’s no confirmation about the specific amount (of money that was sent into the KIC)”, he said in remarks carried by various media reports. The month of June in North Korea is known as the “Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month” and it’s a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of the anti-American sentiment.
“For that to happen”, it said, “the new United Nations resolution must truly bite”.
But with Washington steadfastly refusing to accept North Korea as a nuclear state – and North Korea steadfastly insisting it is one – diplomacy remains frozen. The trade volume between the two Asian neighbors, over $200 billion, is more than double the volume between South Korea and the U.S.
“If we go on business-as-usual vis-a-vis the DPRK’s repeated nuclear tests and advancement of missile capabilities, the entire world could fall prey to the DPRK’s nuclear blackmail”, he said, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
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On Tuesday Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui met with his South Korean counterpart Lim Sung-nam in Seoul to discuss the regional security concerns.
