Park Geun-Hye will become the first South Korean president to visit Iran next month, her office announced today, as Seoul seeks new markets to turn around a lengthy decline in export revenues.
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South Korea and Iran established diplomatic ties in 1962. Professor Shen Jiru, an worldwide relations expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Beijing should not be bound by the treaty in the wake of North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear programs.
Park also threatened North Korea with tougher sanctions and isolation over another potential provocation from the country.
There was also speculation that the North Koran military is under pressure to quickly conduct a successful nuclear test after a mid-range missile test on Friday ended in catastrophic failure.
“Given the latest developments, North Korea could carry out an underground nuclear warhead test and we are keeping close tabs on it”, Moon Sang-gyun, a defense ministry spokesman, told reporters in Seoul on Monday.
South Korea and the US view this claim as a credible threat but say it has not been yet been demonstrated. The missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching parts of the United States territory such as Guam and the outer reaches of Alaska.
Ri, a longtime diplomat and former ambassador, studies American politics and runs a Pyongyang think tank monitoring global events, and reports to North Korea’s leaders.
The South Korean president said solidarity between different political parties is key for the sake of “internal security and inter-Korea issues”. An analysis at Forbes suggests Kim is a little more execution-happy than a truly secure ruler would be, and recent stories of defections among the few North Koreans trusted to travel overseas have clearly made the regime uncomfortable.
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In response to both actions, the United Nations Security Council imposed harsher trade sanctions on Pyongyang, while South Korea, the USA and Japan have declared unilateral measures in addition to trying to stifle North Korea’s economy.
