US deploys more Patriot missiles in South Korea

But on Wednesday, Seoul announced it was suspending all operations of the 124 South Korean companies in Kaesong, and yesterday, Pyongyang responded by expelling all the firms’ managers and freezing their factories’ assets. The official report, however, was published ahead of to a fourth nuclear test conducted by Pyongyang in January and the launch of a satellite-bearing rocket earlier this month.

Royce said the tough legislation is meant to deal such a punishing blow that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is forced to make a choice between returning to the negotiating table and ending his country’s nuclear program or having funds for his regime cut off.

The border between North and South Korea is about as tense as it gets, with armed guards from both sides eyeing each other through binoculars and apparently ready to shoot at the slightest provocation. The North called the move “a declaration of war” on Thursday and expelled the South’s workers.

To remind: in spite of official United Nations ban for any tests of rocket technology, North Korea made a decision to perform second attempt of their most recent Unha-3 rocket.

North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons program further “undermines peace and security in the broader region [and] represents serious threats to our interests, including the security of some of our closest allies”, he noted.

KCNA VIA KNS/AFP/Getty Images A photo released Sunday shows North Korea’s rocket launch of the Earth observation satellite Kwangmyong 4 at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Following North Korea’s firing of a long-range missile on Sunday, Seoul and Washington chose to formally discuss the system’s deployment in the South.

“No proof has been submitted that a project earning more than $80 million in profits has been used exclusively for nuclear and missile development in North Korea”, Lee said. That’s because such action would include the participation of China, which is North Korea’s sole benefactor and the country considered to hold the Kim regime’s survival in its hands.

South Korea had been using a facility it built at a reservoir near the park to pump about 17,000 tons of water into Kaesong every day, according to an official at the South’s state-run water management company who didn’t want to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.

The U.S. worries that North Korea will be able to eventually put a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

Strategic SOF units “appear designed for rapid offensive operations, internal defense against foreign attacks or limited attacks against vulnerable targets in the ROK (South Korea) as part of a coercive diplomacy effort”, it added.

The report said North Korea possesses one submarine-launched missile system, along with less than 100 short-range Scud missiles and fewer than 50 800-mile-range Nodong missiles.

Japan had eased some earlier sanctions on North Korea after it promised in 2014 to reinvestigate the kidnappings, which are a highly sensitive issue in Japan.