South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday that South Korean and USA intelligence authorities believe North Korea has the ability to detonate another atomic device at any time at one of its tunnels at its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where the five previous atomic explosions took place.
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Last week’s nuclear test, the North’s fifth, was its most powerful to date.
US ambassador to South Korea and special envoy on North Korea’s nuclear issue, Sung Kim, said in Seoul Tuesday the USA was having “productive discussions” with the South Koreans.
He said the United States would work with China, North Korea’s major diplomatic ally, to close loopholes in existing resolutions, which were tightened with Beijing’s backing in March.
Kim added that the United States remains open to authentic, meaningful dialogue with the North on ending Pyongyang’s pursuit of its nuclear program.
Kim, the US envoy, said there was no need to reintroduce nuclear weapons in South Korea.
And as North Korea rapidly accelerates its nuclear proficiency, there is the chance that it will develop ICBMs capable of travelling longer distances.
But the nuclear tests have sparked fears of World War 3, with the Mirror warning specifically of a “Third World War” being sparked in the region.
Blindly increasing the pressure and the resulting bounce-back will only make the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula “a firm knot”, Hua said, calling for responsibility from all relevant parties.
The six-party talks, involving China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan, were a multilateral mechanism aimed at solving the Korean Peninusla nuclear issue.
Ri left Pyongyang on Monday to attend a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement countries in Venezuela and later the UN General Assembly, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.
A group of lawmakers in South Korea said on Monday the country should have a nuclear force of its own, either by acquiring weapons or asking the United States to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons withdrawn under a 1991 pact for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
The B-1 bombers, escorted by US and South Korean jets, were seen by an Associated Press photographer as they streaked over the Osan Air Base, which is 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the border with North Korea.
Each aircraft, which had flown from the US Pacific Command’s Andersen Airforce base at Guam, was escorted by US and South Korean fighter jets.
“The United States condemns North Korea’s September 9 nuclear test in the strongest possible terms as a grave threat to regional security and to global peace and stability”, Obama said on Friday.
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South Korea’s Defense Ministry said there was no change in its policy barring nuclear weapons.
