South Korea’s President warns of North collapse
South Korea’s UN ambassador has asked the UN to adopt ‘extraordinary’ measures in response to North Korea’s nuclear test
South Korea’s UN ambassador has asked the UN to adopt ‘extraordinary’ measures in response to North Korea’s nuclear test
South Korea’s President warned Tuesday that rival North Korea faces collapse if it doesn’t abandon its nuclear bomb program, an unusually strong broadside that will likely infuriate Pyongyang.
President Park Geun-hye, in a nationally-televised parliamentary address defending her decision to shut down a jointly run factory park in North Korea, said South Korea will take unspecified “stronger and more effective” measures to make North Korea realise its nuclear ambitions will result only in speeding up of its “regime collapse.”
Ms Park shut the park in response to the North’s recent long-range rocket test, which Seoul and Washington see as a test of banned ballistic missile technology. North Korea last month also conducted a nuclear test.
Both developments put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear armed missile that could reach the US mainland.
Without elaborating, Ms Park said the North has diverted Seoul payments to North Korean workers at the factory park to the Pyongyang leadership, which is in charge of nuclear and missile development.
She also said the South has sent more than $3 billion in government and civilian aid to the North since mid-1990s.
Ms Park called for support for her government amid a divide in South Korea about its tough response to North Korea.
“Aiming the point of a sword back to us and splitting us up are something that must not take place,” she said.
South Korea’s main liberal opposition party has criticized the government’s decision to suspend operations at Kaesong, saying the measure will hurt only South Korean businessmen and deepen tensions with North Korea.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s UN ambassador has asked the UN Security Council to adopt “extraordinary” measures in response to North Korea’s nuclear test and rocket launch to avoid falling prey to its “nuclear blackmail.”
Ambassador Oh Joon told a council meeting yesterday that members must approve “a robust and comprehensive” sanctions resolution to make clear to the North “that it will no longer tolerate its nuclear weapons development.”
He called the test and launch “a clear threat to international peace and security and a blatant challenge to the international community.”