U.S., South Korea, Japan to work toward tougher North Korea sanctions

Those drones were crude and decidedly low-tech, but they were still considered a potential new security threat.

In Pyongyang, Kim called for a bolstering of the country’s nuclear arsenal and the “detonation of more powerful H-bomb in the future”, according to state media.

The provocative claim by North Korea that it made a giant scientific leap, and the blatantly falsified footage, show how desperate Pyongyang is to be noticed, with all of the focus on Iran in recent years.

The Koreas are technically still at war after an armistice ended the Korean War in 1953.

Seoul also said that North Korea had flown leaflets across the border describing her and her government as “mad dogs” as Cold War-style propaganda warfare continued between the rivals.

The UN Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea’s most recent nuclear test.

(Kim Hong-ji/Pool Photo via AP). “They know how to build missiles that work, they know how to build submarines that work, and Kim Jong Un seems particularly enthusiastic about both”.

Diplomats at a United Nations Security Council emergency session last week pledged to pursue new sanctions swiftly.

“I believe the Chinese government will not allow the situation on the Korean peninsula to deteriorate further”.

China is anxious that a crackdown on North Korea may destabilize the Kim regime and lead to millions of refugees fleeing across China’s border, or that South Korea will absorb its northern neighbour, leaving a well-armed United States ally on its frontier.

Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had told his Chinese counterpart that China’s approach to North Korea had not succeeded. His reported remarks sparked speculation in Seoul that China has no intention of joining in any harsh punishment on the North.

However Park said she would not ask the U.S.to station nuclear weapons in South Korea and was non-committal on possibly setting up the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense [THAAD] system in Korea.

“It was a process indispensable for carrying out the WPK’s line on simultaneously carrying out the economic construction and the building of nuclear force to cope with the USA ever-more undisguised hostile policy toward the DPRK”, the agency said.

Meanwhile, American, Japanese and South Korean nuclear negotiators met in Seoul on Wednesday to talk about a coordinated response to the test.

South Korea also is expected to reach out to Russian Federation on January 19 to discuss sanctions.

The North has also been sending leaflets over the border beneath balloons since late on Tuesday, demanding that the South halt propaganda broadcasts across the DMZ. The initial footage showed Liu attending a military parade in Pyongyang last October.

“The military responded with warning broadcasts and shots before the vehicle immediately returned to the North”, read a JCS statement. That narrative has long frustrated Seoul, which chafes at being assigned part of the blame for North Korean provocations.

Turning to Beijing, South Korea’s president Park Geun-hye stressed China’s condemnations of North Korea. In a televised speech, President Park Geun-hye said the South was seeking “effective sanctions that will make North Korea feel bone-numbing pain”.

However, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo points out that Seoul has not been able to get in touch directly with Xi Jinping.