Korea’s Park toughens stand on North

The United States will send four F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea in yet another show of force against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, officials here said Tuesday.

There has been speculation, fueled by media reports citing South Korean government sources, that the North could be preparing for yet another nuclear test after conducting its fourth underground blast on January 6, followed by a rocket launch on February 7 that was widely seen as a test of ballistic missile technology aimed at being able to reach the continental U.S.

Seoul and the global community condemned those provocations as a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

S&P said that it already factored geopolitical risks on the peninsula into its rating of South Korean credit profile, expecting that Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch can have a temporary impact on South Korea’s financial markets and economic activities.

The government of Park, who has been a frequent target of sexist comments from the North, shut down a factory park in North Korea that had been jointly run by the rivals.

“It’s time to find a fundamental solution for bringing practical change in North Korea and to show courage in putting that into action”. Park said South Korea must not provide few-strings-attached large-scale aid to North Korea “like in the past”.

South Korea is due to begin talks with the U.S. this week on the possible deployment of an advanced USA missile defence system that China and Russian Federation have warned could undermine stability in East Asia. Pyongyang has long accused Washington and Seoul of agitating for its collapse.

“Any foreign currency earned in North Korea is transferred to the Workers’ Party, where the money is used to develop nuclear weapons or missiles, or to purchase luxury goods”, unification minister Hong Yong-Pyo said in a televised interview.

A United Nations human rights expert on North Korea wants supreme leader Kim Jong Un to know that he and other senior officials can be held accountable if they are found responsible for crimes against humanity committed… The summit is an annual event, but South Korea will have used to the occasion to increase pressure on China to apply sanctions on Pyongyang. 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.