Britain’s top diplomat on Friday (Dec 8) urged South Korea to “be bigger” than the North as it renewed propaganda broadcasts through massive loudspeakers at the border in response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test.
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North Korea considers such broadcasts to be an act of psychological warfare and likely will have a furious response.
If confirmed, North Korea’s test this week would be its fourth overall nuclear test, and potentially its first hydrogen bomb test.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye spoke to US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday to build consensus on new United National Security Council sanctions against North Korea.
Obama reaffirmed the “unshakeable USA commitment” to the security of South Korea and Japan, according to the statements.
Kerry said that as China has had “a particular approach” to addressing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, Washington had been giving Beijing “the space to be able to implement that”.
Speaking after urgent discussions about North Korea in recent days with Chinese and South Korean foreign ministers, Mr Hammond said: “The UK and Japan are close allies”. B-2 and B-52 bombers are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
In Washington, the North’s actions appeared to have forged rare unity in the House of Representatives between Republicans and Democrats on tightening sanctions against North Korea.
The North’s state media has yet to mention Kim’s birthday or South Korea’s loudspeaker campaign.
In August, Seoul signed a package of agreements with Pyongyang on easing the standoff, which included a stop to broadcasts unless an “abnormal” situation should occur again.
South Korean companies – mostly small- and medium-sized – make products such as watches and fashion goods with cheap labor from North Korea.
Kerry, for his part, took issue with those contentions, emphatically maintaining that, “North Korea has never been left unattended to”.
The House measure would target banks facilitating North Korea’s nuclear program and authorize freezing of US assets of those directly linked to illicit North Korean activities.
Tensions between the two Koreas escalated Wednesday after North Korea carried out an alleged hydrogen bomb test – a move that has been criticized by the global community.
Yun pushed Wang to “sternly punish” North Korea over the test, the South Korean foreign ministry said.
South Korean news outlet News 1 reported seismic monitors detected a 4.6 tremor near the Punggye-ri test site, falling short of a 6-7 quake that would result in the wake of a hydrogen bomb detonation. Nevertheless, the test was seen as a major cause for concern, with some experts suggesting it may have been a boosted-fission device, which would mark a significant step up from the North’s three previous tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
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The presence of xenon would not indicate whether the blast was from a hydrogen device or not.
