DPRK drone returns to north after warning shots from S. Korea

A Security Council diplomat said Wednesday that the U.N.’s most powerful body is working on a resolution that imposes tougher sanctions on North Korea to reflect the claim that it tested a more powerful hydrogen bomb, which is “a step change” from its three previous atomic test. The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private, said all 15 council members agree that North Korea should be denuclearized, and this will be reflected in a new resolution.

Ma, who is working as a missionary based in the NY area under what she said wassecurity protection, described Kim as a Korean-American.

It returned to the North after the shots, South Korean military officials told Reuters.

The other foreigner known to be in detention in North Korea, and who CNN was also given access to, is Hyeon Soo Lim, a South Korean-born Canadian who was the head pastor at one of Canada’s largest churches. There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the USA mission to the United Nations.

“We are cooperating closely with the United States and allies to come up with effective sanctions that will make North Korea feel bone-numbing pain, not only at the Security Council but also bilaterally and multilaterally”, she said in a speech.

A top North Korean ruling party official’s recent warning that the South’s broadcasts have pushed the Korean Peninsula “toward the brink of war” is typical of Pyongyang’s over-the-top rhetoric. When Seoul Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, Seoul says the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire.

South Korea, still technically at war with the North since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, has for days been blaring propaganda through loudspeakers across the border. The South’s military fired some 20 machine gun shots. North Korean drone flights across the border are rare but do occasionally happen across the world’s most heavily armed border.

“We hope that our fellow Koreans in the North will be able to live in a society that doesn’t invade individual lives as soon as possible”, a female presenter said in parts of the broadcast that officials revealed to South Korean media. It might be more hard to do so now.

Diplomats at a U.N. Security Council emergency session pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions.

The statement further added “This attempt by North Korea will create new dimensions to the tensions in the region, intensify the arms races, and put the peace and stability of the region to risk”.

The US House of Representatives voted almost unanimously late on Tuesday to pass legislation to broaden sanctions on the North’s nuclear program.

Klug reported from Seoul.