SoKor expects more NoKor provocations
SEOUL (Reuters) — South Korea expects North Korea to engage in more provocative action next month to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of its communist party and China’s allimportant Communist Party Congress.
In a meeting with President Moon Jae-in yesterday, national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said he expected Pyongyang to act around Oct. 10 and 18, but gave no details.
“(Chung’s report) also said there are worries over military conflict being sparked by accidental incidents,” said Park Wan-ju, lawmaker and head spokesman of the ruling Democratic Party.
“The president said the United States speaks of military and diplomatic options, but South Korea can’t go through war again.”
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have escalated in recent weeks as North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump exchange bellicose threats and insults over the North’s nuclear and missile development program.
The North has accused Trump of declaring war after he warned Kim’s regime would not last if he persisted in threatening the United States and its allies, having earlier warned North Korea would be totally destroyed in such an event.
Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched dozens of missiles this year as it accelerates a program aimed at enabling it to target the United States with a nucleartipped missile.
The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.
China, North Korea’s main ally, would likely be extremely unhappy if Pyongyang tested a missile or carried out some other act during its Communist Party Congress, held once every five years.
Park said President Moon told the meeting that Washington and Seoul agreed that pressure needed to be applied to North Korea, with the door to talks still open.
In a separate speech yesterday, Moon said cooperation with the international community to curb the North’s nuclear ambitions was at its highest level ever and called for the strengthening of South Korea-US defenses to rein in the North.
Since the North’s latest nuclear test, countries have taken measures against the reclusive state like expelling North Korean diplomats.
Malaysia said yesterday all its citizens are banned from traveling to North Korea until further notice due to escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.