North Korea says South’s propaganda broadcasts push situation to ‘brink of war’
North Korea’s state news agency said Friday in a statement that
Traditionally, the relationship between China and North Korea has been described as ties bound by a blood pledge because China fought for the North during the Korean War (1950-1953).
Performers on Seoul’s propaganda playlist include a female K-pop band that rose to fame when its members fell multiple times on stage, a middle-aged singer who rose from obscurity in 2015 with a song about living for 100 years and songs by a young female singer, IU, whose sweet voice might be aimed at North Korean soldiers deployed near the border.
China wasn’t informed in advance of the detonation and is “steadfast in its position that the Korean peninsula should be denuclearized”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
It is a familiar story that led to a landmark cooperation deal last August, demonstrating the authoritarian North’s vulnerability to any threat to its own ideology. China provides nearly all of North Korea’s imported energy, and Chinese food goods have helped the Kim regime limit the effects of starvation and shortages.
Hua did not mention the United States by name, but her remarks were a reference to the belief in China that efforts by the U.S.to isolate North Korea economically and politically over the past decade have worsened the situation. It is believes that until recently China was anxious about the regional security fallout of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and had thus resisted closer links with the country.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that frontline South Korean troops, near 11 sites around the loudspeakers, were on highest alert.
Pyongyang’s rivals are “jealous” of the North’s successful hydrogen bomb test, Workers’ Party Secretary Kim Ki Nam said in comments broadcast on state TV late Friday.
The United States needs to work with Japan, South Korea, China and Russian Federation to figure out a new strategy for dealing with North Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong Un.
South Korean officials said that the broadcasts can travel about 10 kilometers (6 miles) during the day, and 24 kilometers at night through the loudspeakers.
The source said he had relayed the message to Beijing immediately after the nuclear test, urging China to support the push for a treaty. “Beijing has participated in previous sanctions on the North. Whether China will take tougher measures hinges on the decision of the UN Security Council”, it said. But many have defended the Chinese approach to dealing with North Korea, blaming other countries for escalating tensions in the region. US Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives could join forces in a rare display of unity to tighten sanctions on North Korea. A congressional source said it was expected as soon as Monday.
Without access to hard currency, North Korea couldn’t buy parts and supplies for its weapons programs, crippling its missile production line, Royce said.
North Korea’s underlying assumption behind its nuclear gambit is that it can survive and perhaps even benefit from an open geopolitical rift between the United States and China.
A South Korean military official told Reuters that Seoul and Washington had discussed the deployment of USA strategic weapons on the Korean peninsula, but declined to give details. Officials refused to elaborate, but the assets likely are B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and nuclear-powered submarines.