Also on Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing firm opposition to the nuclear test and commitment to settle the problems through the six-party talks on Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
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The isolated state last Friday set off its most powerful nuclear explosion to date, saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat its rivals and the United Nations have been unable to contain. The test brought a strong rebuke from the West, with Washington threatening to introduce additional sanctions on Pyongyang.
But North Korea has since responded, labelling South Korea’s threats “meaningless sanctions… highly laughable”.
Explaining the conversation between President Park and U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday, Kim said “President Obama made it clear that the U.S. will take actions to protect South Korea from North Korea’s provocations by deploying every possible means such as the nuclear umbrella and conventional weapons, based on the Mutual Defense Treaty”.
North Korea and the US are technically still in a state of war, since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test last Friday, resulting in another round of global condemnation.
“North Korea continues to present a growing threat to the region, to our allies, to ourselves, and we will do everything possible to defend against that growing threat”, Sung Kim said.
The South Korean military official told Yonhap that Pyongyang districts thought to be hiding the North’s leadership would be particularly targeted in any attack.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pictured during a test-fire of strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang August 25, 2016.
Despite the global Nonproliferation Treaty that bars the spread of nuclear weapons, South Korean officials renewed calls for the U.S.to deploy tactical nuclear weapons as a last-ditch defense against the North. The South plans to carry out a number of tests on these missiles by next year.
North Korea has dismissed as “laughable” moves by the United States to impose fresh sanctions following its fifth nuclear test.
The details of the operation came to light after the South Korean Defence Ministry unveiled the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan in front of the National Assembly in response to the latest nuclear test by North Korea.
The AP reported over the weekend that Hillary Clinton, the USA democratic presidential candidate, said it was time for a “rethinking” of America’s strategy for North Korea and that she would seek to impose tougher sanctions on the communist nation.
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A US Special Representative for DPRK policy has met with Japanese officials, and said later that the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against the DPRK.
