US SAYS NKOREA ‘BEGGING FOR WAR’
The US has accused North Korea of “begging for war” and pushed for the “strongest possible measures” on Pyongyang following its sixth and most powerful nuclear test.
As world powers scramble to react to the latest grave step in the North’s rogue weapons programme, South Korea launched major live-fire naval drills to warn its isolated neighbour against any provocations at sea Tuesday morning local time.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Washington will present a new sanctions resolution to be negotiated in the coming days, with a view to voting on it next Monday.
“Only the strongest sanctions will enable us to resolve this problem through diplomacy,” Haley told the meeting Monday called by the United States, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea.
North Korea on Sunday triggered global alarm when it detonated what it described as a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile.
The underground blast had a yield of between 50 and 100 kilotons, or on average more than five times more powerful than the bomb detonated over Hiroshima, UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the council.
Declaring that “enough is enough,” Haley said incremental sanctions imposed on Pyongyang since 2006 had failed.
Leader Kim Jong-Un’s “abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats show that he is begging for war,” she said.
“War is never something the United States wants and we don’t want it now, but our country’s patience is not unlimited,” she said.
Haley did not spell out what measures Washington was seeking, but diplomats said they could target oil supplies to North Korea -- potentially dealing a major blow to the economy.
New sanctions could also seek to curb tourism to the country and ban North Korean laborers sent abroad.
The draft text was expected to be presented to the 14 other council members on Tuesday as the United States sought to respond quickly to reports that North Korea was preparing another missile launch.
Pyongyang in July fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that apparently brought much of the US mainland into range and Seoul has said it could be planning another test.
At the UN, China’s ambassador Liu Jieyi warned that the crisis was worsening and emphasized the need for dialogue and a diplo- matic solution.
“China will never allow chaos and war on the (Korean) peninsula,” he asserted.
Liu urged the parties to agree to a Chinese-Russian plan calling for the North to freeze its missile and nuclear tests and the United States and South Korea to suspend joint military exercises.
Haley rejected the proposal as “insulting.”
“When a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon and an ICBM pointed at you, you do not take steps to lower your guard. No one would do that. We certainly won’t,” she declared.
Russia said it would study the new US proposals for sanctions, but again stressed those measures alone would not resolve the crisis.
“This is not the way to get parties to the table to seek a political solution,” said Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia.
The council has imposed seven sets of sanctions on North Korea since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006, but Pyongyang has repeatedly found ways to circumvent the measures.
The most recent resolutions, however, have zeroed in on the economy, targeting key exports sectors such as coal that are a source of hard currency for the regime.
NAVAL DRILL. This handout photo taken on September 5, 2017 and provided by South Korean Defense Ministry in Seoul shows South Korean navy vessels taking part in a naval drill off the east coast of South Korea.