Korean foreign minister says denuclearization “seems to have been lost”

The North’s new foreign minister and former nuclear negotiator Ri Yong-Ho was making his diplomatic debut at the meeting, hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Kerry, who is in the Laotian capital to attend an Asia-Pacific security conference that includes North Korea, told reporters Tuesday that North Korea is the only country that is moving in the opposite direction when the rest of the world is moving toward a nuclear-free world.

The United States warned North Korea on Tuesday of “real consequences” if it continues nuclear and missile tests in defiance of UN sanctions, as the worldwide community moves to rein it in.

In a statement, SCDPK called the deployment a “provocative move against North Korea, China, and Russia” that will “redraw Cold War lines as well as escalate tensions in a region that is already heavily militarized with weapons of mass destruction”.

The distribution of leaflets comes after North Korea test-fired three ballistic missiles last week to protest South Korea’s decision to deploy a US anti-missile system.

“We will not recklessly resort to its use in the absence of substantive threat, unless we are threatened by invasion by another nuclear-power state”, he said.

“It’s a horrifying situation”, Neeson said of North Korea.

North Korea has responded to the latest sanctions with defiance, conducting a series of rocket and missile tests in spite of repeated worldwide condemnation. The North is adopting a strategy of ambiguity as it refuses to either confirm or deny whether it will carry out a fifth nuclear test.

His comments came after top Washington envoy John Kerry warned the North of “real consequences” if it continues nuclear and missile tests in defiance of UN sanctions, as the global community attempts to rein in the rogue nation. Had there been such an article, the Security Council should have taken action for every nuclear and ballistic missile test conducted by other countries, he said. “In February, March, April, May, continually they have done missile tests”, he said. “So together we are determined, all of us assembled here – perhaps with one exception assembled here – to make absolutely certain (North Korea) understands that there are real consequences for these actions”.

“She is facing repatriation back to North Korea”, he said. “This, we believe, is the only way”, Ri said, according to Yonhap.