North Korea missile test poses grave threat, ODU expert says

Professor Park Jong Cheol of Gyeongsang National University told Daily NK that, “China agreed to every UNSC resolution adopted after North Korea’s fourth and fifth nuclear tests”.

Chinese diplomat has slammed the “China responsibility theory” with respect to North Korea.

In the 1980s and 1990s, North Korea was a major supplier of iron ore to Chinese steelmakers, according to Philip Kirchlechner, director of Iron Ore Research Pty in Perth.

North Korea today lashed out at a live-fire drill the United States and South Korea staged in a show of force against Pyongyang, accusing Washington of pushing the peninsula to the “tipping point” of nuclear war.

It has urged everyone not to “add fuel to the fire” on the Korean Peninsula, rather than just shift responsibility to China.

The news comes as the Trump administration continues to call on Beijing to use its economic leverage over Kim Jong Un’s regime.

United States and UN sanctions have failed to deter North Korea from pursuing its nuclear and missile programs, and on Friday, it justified its ICBM test as an exercise of its legitimate right to self-defense. The best case scenario would then be one in which the North Koreans quickly realize that they have bitten off more than they can chew, and they accept the demands of the worldwide community.

Nearly all North Korean defectors head to China before making their way to South Korea to avoid the heavily militarised border separating the two Koreas.

Since he assumed office in May, South Korea’s Liberal president has attempted to resume dialogue with Pyongayng.

Before that, a United States nuclear expert had warned that Kim Jong-un might be coming closer to being able to produce a hydrogen bomb, also known as thermonuclear weapon, as it is able to produce tritium, a key element.

The US Missile Defense Agency said Friday it would soon test an anti-ballistic missile system in Alaska, days after the North demonstrated its arsenal was capable of striking parts of Alaska with the ICBM test.

Trump has previously threatened in a tweet to take more economic action to pressure Beijing to help rein in aggression from Pyongyang. Nearly every weapon component in the hands of North Korea either came directly from China or was purchased by cash earned through Chinese trade and remittances.

The paper said the “ludicrous statement reveals a vicious intent to avoid responsibility of having destroyed peace and to instigate foreign powers to disarm North Korea”.

As North Korea edges closer to launching a nuclear weapon across the Pacific, President Donald Trump is demanding China pressure Pyongyang to stop its weapons program. North Korea’s nascent ICBM capability will not reverse that trend.

It has been reported that the United States has proposed a new draft UNSC resolution for further sanctions on North Korea to China.

There seems to be zero chance of a North Korean coup or a Chinese intervention to remove Kim. “So China does not hope to see a collapse of North Korea”. “Being stabbed in the back is really not OK”, he elaborated. One way or another, therefore, North Korea must be disarmed. Whatever the ghastly toll in casualties a peninsular war would produce today, multiply it exponentially once Kim obtains nuclear ICBMs. Since the July 4 ballistic missile test, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has been pushing for fresh measures that may include further curbs on China’s trade with North Korea.