S. Korea leader calls for Chinese help to punish North Korea

In a show of strength on Sunday, a nuclear-capable US B-52 bomber – flanked by South Korean F-15 fighter jets and US F-16 planes – flew over Osan Air Base, some 70 km (45 miles) south of the inter-Korean border.

Amid calls from South Korea for China to take strict actions against Pyongyang, another report by Yonhap said that a Chinese ambassador to North Korea, Li Jinjun, recommended a stronger relationship for China with North Korea while addressing Chinese students living in Pyongyang.

By a almost unanimous vote of 418 to 2, the House of Representatives passed the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act, which would heap additional financial pressure on the already-sanctioned hermit regime of leader Kim Jong-Un.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

She noted that Beijing, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has stated repeatedly that it would not tolerate the North’s nuclear program.

Beijing has recently shown signs that it’s losing patience with North Korea over its repeated provocation.

During her news conference Park credited South Korea’s close military alliance with the United States for generating a strong deterrence and enhancing military readiness to defend against possible North Korean provocations.

Even as lawmakers advance the sanctions, former USA administration officials warned that such measures would be insufficient to change North Korea’s behavior, and that Pyongyang’s ally China needs encouragement to alter its dealings with its renegade neighbor. Kim called the scientists and workers “nuclear combatants” and “the heroes of heroes” who caused fear in the United States and its allies, according to the state news agency.

Her speech came a week after the DPRK claimed last Wednesday that it had successfully tested the first hydrogen bomb.

On the contrary, the North has refused to engage in denuclearization talks since 2008, and has conducted several nuclear tests and missile launches in that time. Her military announced it has found hundreds of anti-Seoul leaflets near the western portion of the Koreas’ border, which the defence ministry believes were floated over by the North’s military.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Wednesday the government will continue work to reduce household debt as well as to improve the quality of debt this year.

Park said past broadcasts helped frontline North Korean soldiers learn the truth about Pyongyang’s authoritarian rule and defect to South Korea.

The request comes after Seoul claimed North Korea had dropped leaflets across the border describing their government as “mad dogs”. Such leafleting by the North is, however, still rare.