S. Koreans protest US missile deployment
SEOUL: South Korean protesters clashed with thousands of police over the deployment of a defence system aimed at countering North Korean missile attacks, while China and the United States discussed options to rein in Pyongyang.
The US wants the UN Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean labourers abroad, and subject leader Kim Jong-un to an asset freeze and travel ban.
Pressure from Washington has ratcheted up since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday. That test, along with a series of missile launches, showed Pyongyang was close to achieving its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon that could reach the US.
Amid the rising tensions, Seoul installed the four remaining launchers of the US anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system on a former golf course in the south yesterday. Two launchers had been deployed.
More than 30 people were wounded when 8,000 policemen broke up a blockade of about 300 villagers and civic groups opposed to the THAAD system deployment, fire officials said.
US President Donald Trump has urged China, North Korea’s biggest ally and trading partner, to do more to rein in its neighbour. US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he had an executive order ready for Trump to sign that would impose sanctions on any country that trades with Pyongyang if the UN does not put additional sanctions on North Korea.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping committed on a phone call on Wednesday to “take further action with the goal of achieving the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, the White House said.
“President Xi would like to do something. We'll see whether or not he can do it. But we will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea,” Trump told reporters, although he offered no specifics. Reuters