US House backs broader North Korea sanctions; South Korea calls on China

Building up its response to the South’s activation last Friday of propaganda-blaring loudspeakers on the border, the North also sent leaflets, carried by balloons, into the South on Wednesday.

SEOUL-Soon after North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb last week, South Korea’s defense minister sought an emergency call with his Chinese counterpart.

China supported United Nations sanctions against North Korea in 2013 following its third nuclear test.

North Korea has been suspected of sending over basic surveillance drones before, but any incursion in the present climate would naturally be taken seriously.

Whether the test was successful or not, Schilling said it was clear that the North Koreans were intent on developing an SLBM capability and “will presumably get it right eventually”.

Park Geun-hye’s comments came as Seoul said North Korea had flown leaflets across the border describing her and her government as “mad dogs” as Cold War-style propaganda warfare continued between the rivals.

The nuclear test has provided momentum for a rapprochement between South Korea and Japan, U.S. allies whose relations have become strained in recent years over disputes related to history.

It is the first time shots have been fired in what has so far been a Cold War-style standoff between the Koreas in the wake of the North’s nuclear test one week ago.

Beijing is seen as reluctant to clamp down on the North because of fears that a toppled government in Pyongyang would lead to millions of desperate North Koreans flooding across the border to China.

Behind the theater put on by the North Korean state, news of a nuclear test brings mixed feelings of pride and indifference for ordinary North Koreans.

She stressed China’s past condemnations of North Korea’s military nuclear programme but added: “I am certain that China is very well aware if such a strong will isn’t followed by necessary steps, we will not be able to stop the North’s fifth and sixth nuclear tests and we can not guarantee true peace and stability on the Korean peninsula”.

Despite much worldwide skepticism about whether Pyongyang had actually exploded a hydrogen bomb rather than a less powerful atomic bomb, the test sparked global outcry, including from China, which is a huge supplier of energy and aid to North Korea.

Cutting off North Korea’s access to cash also makes it hard for Pyongyang to pay its army and police forces, said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The ministry added that the shots did not hit the drone, and that it promptly returned to the northern side of the border after encountering the warning.

“After a warning broadcast, our military fired a warning shot, and the unidentified object immediately went back to the North”. South Korean media reported that it was a North Korean drone. “Now, Seoul suddenly finds itself in a position where it must change its entire diplomatic approach”, South Korea’s biggest circulation newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, wrote in an editorial.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to pass legislation that would broaden sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear program, days after Pyongyang announced it had tested a powerful nuclear device. Park on Wednesday urged North Korea’s only major ally, China, to help punish P…