S Korea Mulls Banning Port Entry for Vessels Arriving From North

After Ms Park’s speech, the Yonhap news agency cited defence officials in Seoul as saying that four US F-22 stealth fighter jets would fly a mission over South Korea tomorrow in a show of force.

Ms Park argued that past efforts at engagement had not worked.

The F-22 fighter has a stealth function of escaping any radar detection, and is capable of carrying nuclear missiles and bombs.

South Korea’s ambassador to the United States Oh Joon told local media that it is possible a new U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea could be adopted as early as next week.

“It’s time to find a fundamental solution for bringing practical change in North Korea and to show courage in putting that into action”, she added.

“It is a shift from an ideal North Korea policy to a realistic North Korea policy”, he said.

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 realize its nuclear ambitions will result only in speeding up of its “regime collapse”.

The former North Korean leader, father of current leader Kim Jong-un, died of heart failure in December 2011, after his iron-fist rule and pursuit of nuclear weapons stoked regional tensions for more than a decade.

As part of its own punitive measures toward the DPRK’s recent provocations, South Korea decided last Wednesday to stop operations at the Kaesong Industrial Zone.

Citing the North’s nuclear test and rocket launch, Ms Park said it was clear it had no intention of discussing denuclearisation. Pyongyang retaliated by expelling all the South Koreans there, put its military in charge of the area and cut off key communication hotlines between the Koreas.

Following Pyongyang’s rocket launch, Seoul announced it will begin talks with Washington on deploying a sophisticated USA missile defense system in South Korea and that the allies’ upcoming springtime military drills will be the biggest ever.

The deployment of strategic military assets comes after United States Forces Korea officials revealed elements of the elite 1st Special Forces Group and the 75th Ranger Regiment had started training exercises with South Korean special troops. Pyongyang has long accused Washington and Seoul of agitating for its collapse. The allies say their drills are defensive in nature.