S Korea says fired warning shots at suspected N Korea drone

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted almost unanimously to pass legislation that would broaden sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear programme.

In defiance of a United Nations ban, the isolated country has said it has ballistic missile technology which would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine, although experts and analysis of North Korean state media cast doubt on the claim.

North Korea says last week’s test was of a miniaturised hydrogen bomb – a claim largely dismissed by experts who argue the yield was far too low for a full-fledged thermonuclear device. She noted that Beijing, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has stated repeatedly that it would not tolerate the North’s nuclear program.

The South Korean president further stated that Seoul would also hold negotiations about additional “punitive sanctions” against North Korea with the United States and its allies.

Amid calls from South Korea for China to take strict actions against Pyongyang, another report by Yonhap said that a Chinese ambassador to North Korea, Li Jinjun, recommended a stronger relationship for China with North Korea while addressing Chinese students living in Pyongyang. “I believe China knows well that North Korea’s fifth and sixth nuclear tests can’t be avoided and true peace and stability on the Korean peninsula can’t be guaranteed unless that determination turns into real necessary measures”.

“Holding the hands of those in need is (the role of) best partners”, Park added.

President Park described the resumed broadcasts as the most effective and powerful tool of psychological warfare during her nationally televised speech to people, indicating the continued broadcasts for the time being.

“Unless Beijing and Moscow join strong sanctions against the North, we could end up with a new cold-war situation pitting Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo against Pyongyang, Beijing, and Moscow”, a researcher with a government-funded think tank speculated.

“The global community’s countermeasures against North Korea’s last nuclear test must differ from the past”, Park told an annual press conference. “North Korea used heavy video editing to cover over this fact”.

There has been widespread speculation that the North’s current provocations are aimed at bolstering leader Kim Young Un’s efforts to consolidate power four years after he took over following the death of his father and to rally public support for him in the impoverished country. But China is still seen as reluctant to clamp down on the North in part because of fears that a toppled government in Pyongyang would see millions of desperate North Koreans flooding across the border with China and a U.S.-backed South Korean government in control of the Korean Peninsula.

She said her country would continue its loudspeaker campaign of blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda along the border which had prompted North Korean soldiers to defect to South Korea.

The vast majority of North Korea’s business dealings are with its ally China.