UN Choir To Perform In South Korea For 1st Time This June

“We carefully considered their proposal, and made clear that denuclearization had to be part of any such discussion”, Kirby said.

Considering that the global community is discussing sanctions for North Korea’s fourth nuclear weapons test and its launch of a long-range missile, the fact is that negotiations are unlikely to occur in the near term.

He also warned that THAAD deployment would “create a vicious cycle of Cold War-style confrontations and an arms race”, and urged South Korea to take that into account when deciding if THAAD truly makes the country safer.

The South Korean government also issued a statement Tuesday ensuring it would “firmly respond to North Korea’s reckless provocations” after a statement from Pyongyang dismissing South Korean President Park Geun-hye as a warmongering “senile granny”.

The North and the USA agreed to an armistice, but not a peace treaty.

The statement added that the first target would be South Korea’s presidential Blue House, while US military bases in Asia and on the USA mainland would be its secondary targets.

North Korea regularly ratchets up its hostile rhetoric around the time of the joint US-South Korea military exercises, which usually spark a sharp surge in tensions on the divided peninsula. At the same time, any effort by Beijing to tighten the economic screws on its ally could precipitate a collapse of the highly unstable North Korean regime, opening up the possibility of a US-backed client state in Pyongyang on China’s northern border.

The UN Security Council is considering tougher sanctions to punish North Korea over the rocket launch and a nuclear bomb test in January. “In the event of an economic failure, a shift in the Kim regime could emerge as the military – rather than regular North Koreans – would first demand a shift in party-military relations or call for a military-centric order”, the report stated, according to Yonhap.

“I do not deny the fact that THAAD would play a role in protecting [South] Korea, but it will inevitably target China and Russia”, Qiu said on Tuesday.

South Korea and the United States have delayed the launch of formal talks on the THAAD deployment.

“There is always a slight risk of miscalculation by either side, but no more than usual”, said Andray Abrahamian, a North Korea specialist at Australia’s Macquarie University.

The delay comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit Washington from Tuesday to meet his U.S. counterpart John Kerry for possible talks over the controversial defense system and North Korea.