China’s Xi Pledges to Properly Address Differences With South Korea

Referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s staunch pursuit of nuclear weapons, he said “There’s little doubt that he sees the nuclear issue as being his legacy.to come out of the shadow of his father and grandfather”. Such missiles are also easier to transport and hide.

“Corruption is rife, so that by the time senior military officers have taken their share of food provisions to sell for profit on the private market, there is next to nothing left for ordinary soldiers”, he said.

Two tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles in July resulted in a new round of tougher global sanctions. It was the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s push to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Kim Jong Un’s government.

“It is unacceptable for individuals and companies in China, Russia, and elsewhere to enable North Korea to generate income used to develop weapons of mass destruction and destabilize the region”, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.

North Korea argues that its arsenal of nuclear and ballistic weapons is necessary to prevent the USA from invading it, pointing to historical examples such as Iraq and Libya. It has been 26 days since the country’s last missile launch. It then followed up with a successful test of the land-based Pukguksong-2 in February this year. CNN spotted something potentially more worrisome: The photos released by the Korean Central News Agency show diagrams that seem to depict two unknown and potentially in development missiles. It was identified as an “underwater strategic ballistic missile”, indicating that it would have a longer range than the Pukguksong-1.

“The fact that North Korea has not tested a long-range missile in a month is not necessarily equivalent to restraint”. Both are believed to have intermediate ranges that could target Japan and the USA bases there but not the mainland United States.

“We should be looking at Hwasong-13 as a 12,000-km class ICBM that can strike all of the mainland United States”, Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Seoul’s Kyungnam University told Reuters. “Though, whether that’s credible is another matter”. Vox’s Zeeshan Aleem reported that China stopped seafood imports from North Korea in compliance with United Nations sanctions the Chinese voted in favor of earlier this month.

Nerves in Asia were on edge in July after North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles that could in theory reach the USA mainland.

Thousands of US and South Korean military personnel are beginning an annual military exercise, which will include Australian involvement in computer-simulated drills.