The US and North Korea’s neighbors may meet soon to find a new way to deal with Pyongyang after it snubbed formal talks on ending its nuclear program, conducted an atomic test and threatened war in response to UN sanctions, an official said yesterday.
South Korea has proposed the talks with four other nations that have been trying to negotiate an end to the North’s nuclear program for years. The US and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said.
He said it remains to be seen where or when the meeting — if it materializes — would take place, but one possibility is on the sidelines of a regional security forum scheduled in Phuket, Thailand, next month.
“We have to see how things will play out,” said the official, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.
Pyongyang has vowed to bolster its nuclear arsenal and threatened war to protest sanctions imposed by the UN after its nuclear test on May 25. It also test-fired a ballistic missile and is reportedly preparing for another long-range missile launch and a third nuclear test.
The provocations appear to be partly aimed at strengthening the North’s internal unity as its ailing leader Kim Jong-il prepares to hand over power to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un.
Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun reported yesterday that Jong-un was working as the acting chairman of the nation’s National Defense Commission, reinforcing his position as the successor. The 26-year-old is supporting his father, who is chairman of the commission, the country’s highest post.
“He is focusing on the job as acting chairman. If something happens to our general, he will automatically take the chairman’s position,” the report quoted a source close to the North Korean leadership as saying.
Also yesterday, the regime unleashed a fresh round of threats against the sanctions in what has become an almost daily dose of condemnation, transmitted through its official media.
“The implementation of sanctions means war,” North Korea’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It also warned of a “merciless retaliatory strike” against South Korea if Seoul tried to infringe on the North’s sovereignty in the pretext of implementing sanctions.
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