S.Korea to Hold Six-party Talks on DPRK Nuke Program

In this 10 January, 2016 US Air Force handout photo, a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, conducts a low-level flight in the vicinity of Osan Air Base, South Korea, in response to recent provocative action by North Korea.

“South Korea and the United States are in close consultation about additional deployment of other strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula”, Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told a regular press briefing in Seoul.

On Wednesday, Pyongyang claimed it had carried out its first hydrogen bomb test.

Reuters reports that while China publicly backs United Nations’ sanctions on the pariah state, it is believed to secretly provide the country with large amounts of aid.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s foreign ministry revealed Monday that Seoul would be involved in meetings this week with the U.S., Japan and China to discuss another U.N. Security Council resolution.

The decision has been made by the commander of combined US forces, Curtis Scaparrotti, during his visit to the Osan Air Base operated jointly by the US and South Korea, according to a United States Forces Korea (USFK) official. Royce said the administration’s approach of “strategic patience” toward North Korea has failed to stop its nuclear program.

USA nuclear experts have expressed doubts, saying its yield was too low to believe that such an advanced bomb, way more powerful than conventional nuclear weapons, had been detonated.

 North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un on Monday called on his scientists to improve the country’s nuclear arsenal, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

Nonetheless, the United States was clearly intending to send a message to the North Koreans, as well as to the South itself and to Japan, that the USA stands prepared and fully capable of defending the area from North Korean threats and aggression if necessary.

“Gone are days never to return when the USA could threaten the DPRK with nuclear weapons”, said ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

Seoul’s unification ministry said Monday that it will restrict entrance of South Korean workers into the Kaesong industrial complex, the only remaining symbol of inter-Korean economic cooperation, from Tuesday.

South Korea has also stepped up efforts to engage its partners in the six-party talks on punitive measures against Pyongyang. Officials in South Korea suspected that Kim was using his latest nuclear test to glorify his rule and may further raise tensions to consolidate loyalty at home. “Almost all of its socioeconomic activities will be paralyzed, from the transportation sector to the military sector; inflation will rise; prices will soar; social anxiety will cause riots; and North Korean society will face a collapse”.