Korea’s foreign ministry calls S. Korea’s psychological warfare ‘odd’

South Korea is growing frustrated over China’s reluctance to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, although Beijing has shown a willingness to accept some form of penalty against its isolated neighbor, diplomatic sources said January 14.

As the communist state has been under United Nations sanctions for its three previous nuclear tests, a mere reiteration of past restrictions will not be sufficient this time, according to the president. The equipment was acquired 20 years ago from Russia, South Korean television network SBS reported.

President Park Geun-hye pledged Wednesday to impose stricter sanctions against North Korea for its recent nuclear bomb test that will include UN Security Council’s “strong and comprehensive” embargos on the reclusive regime’s finance and trade. “I hope the Chinese authorities agree with us that we simply can not take a business as usual approach to this latest provocation”.

Police officials raised the possibility that the emails might have been part of a hacking attempt by North Korea on South Korean officials, as most of the emails were sent to persons working in governmental bodies.

To become law, the legislation must be passed by the US Senate and signed by President Barack Obama. North Korea had accepted to attend the annual high-profile gathering of hundreds of heads of state, CEOs and public figures in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

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.

North Korea’s “successful” submarine-launched ballistic missile test last month was, in fact, an explosive failure that was not even launched from a submarine, separate expert analyses concluded.

South Korea’s Director General Yoon Soon-gu represented Seoul in the talks, while Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, director of foreign affairs at the Chinese Defense Ministry, led the delegation for Beijing. South Korea on Wednesday fired warning shots after an unknown object from North Korea was seen flying close to the rivals’ border.

A Korean-American man who says he is being held in North Korea was a Christian pastor who had worked in China and the United States, a North Korean defector who met him and traveled with him in 2007 told Reuters. The country’s new leader, Kim Jong-Un, has made plain his aims to strut the world stage by throwing detente in the wastebasket and marching the country’s nuclear-weapons program forward.

She said past broadcasts helped front-line North Korean soldiers learn the truth about Pyongyang’s authoritarian rule and defect to South Korea.