US loses ‘strategic patience’ with North Korea
SEOUL: Visiting US Vice-President Mike Pence and South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn agreed yesterday to strengthen the alliance between the two countries and take punitive actions against North Korea.
Pence and Hwang, serving as acting South Korean president, held talks in Seoul before a joint press conference.
The US vice-president arrived in South Korea on Sunday as part of a 10-day trip to Asia. Earlier, Pence visited a US base near the Demilitarised Zone dividing the two Koreas. He will leave for Japan today.
Pence said the US and South Korea have, since 1992, made joint efforts to achieve a denuclearised Korean Peninsula through peaceful means. “All options are on the table,” Pence said, although the US wants peaceful means for the denuclearisation of the peninsula.
Citing two nuclear tests and multiple ballistic missile test-launches conducted by North Korea in the past 18 months, Pence said the “era of strategic patience is over” on Pyongyang.
“Strategic patience” refers to a US policy on North Korea advocated by the previous administration of former US president Barack Obama.
Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear detonation in September 2016 and a fifth in January. After the January atomic bomb test, the country launched a long-range rocket that put a satellite into orbit. The rocket launch is seen by South Korea and the US as a disguised test of banned ballistic missile technology. The North is banned from testing the technology under UN Security Council resolutions.
Shortly before Pence’s arrival in South Korea, Pyongyang testlaunched an unidentified missile from its east coast. It exploded seconds after the launch, and was adjudged a failed test by Seoul.
Hwang said Pence’s visit to South Korea was timely and meaningful as it came amid mounting tensions in the region, which stemmed from what he described as North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
The acting president said he talked with Pence about the graveness of Pyongyang’s nuclear-tipped missiles, agreeing to implement sanctions and put pressure on North Korea. Hwang and Pence agreed to take punitive actions on the North if the country conducts “further provocations”.
The missile launch came amid rising tensions on the peninsula, caused by the rare re-routing of a US aircraft – the USS Carl Vinson carrier and accompanying warships
– toward the West Pacific.