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| A US Army's Apache helicopter fires rockets during U.S.- Republic of Korea (ROK) joint military live-fire drills at Seungjin Fire Training Field in Pocheon in the ROK near the border with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), April 26, 2017. (Ahn Young-joon / AP) |
SEOUL/WASHINGTON – The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States agreed on Thursday on "swift punitive measures" against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the event of further provocation.
The two sides pledged that in the event of additional strategic provocation by the North to swiftly take punitive measures including a new U.N. Security Council resolution that are unbearable for the North
Presidential Office, The Republic of Korea
The development came as a DPRK official vowed it would push ahead with nuclear and missile tests to counter U.S. "hostile acts".
As a standoff escalated over DPRK nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, the ROK said the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system was moving ahead effectively a day after angry protests against the battery and opposition from China.
"The two sides pledged that in the event of additional strategic provocation by the North to swiftly take punitive measures including a new U.N. Security Council resolution that are unbearable for the North," ROK presidential office said after its national security adviser, Kim Kwan-jin, held a phone call with his U.S. counterpart, H.R. McMaster.
The U.S. and the DPRK have stepped up warnings to each other in recent weeks over the DPRK’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of U.N. resolutions.
Though it has warned "all options are on the table", Trump's administration said on Wednesday it aimed to push the DPRK into dismantling its weapons programs through tougher sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and it remained open to talks.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats described the DPRK as "an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority".
The U.S. signal of a willingness to exhaust non-military avenues came as the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group approached Korean waters, where it will join the USS Michigan nuclear submarine.
A DPRK official speaking on CNN said the country would not be influenced by outside events.
"As long as America continues its hostile acts of aggression, we will never stop nuclear and missile tests," said Sok Chol Won, director of the DPRK’s Institute of Human Rights at the Academy of Social Sciences.
DPRK official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said it was "entirely because of the U.S." that global denuclearization had not materialized.
"So U.S. officials should know this clearly and feel responsible, not play with their beaks thoughtlessly," it said.
The ROK on Wednesday moved parts of a U.S. "Terminal High Altitude Area Defense", or THAAD, missile defense system to its deployment site, on what had been a golf course, about 250 km south of the capital, Seoul, signaling a faster installation of the system.
South Korea's Defence Ministry, asked if the THAAD unit would be undergoing trials, said the deployment had progressed further than it and the U.S. had earlier indicated.
"No, not a trial operation. The capability that's been deployed by the United States and South Korea now means that if North Korea provokes, it is a capability that can respond," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing.
A photograph taken of the site showed a THAAD interceptor on the back of a mobile launcher erected and pointed skywards on green lawn as a military transport helicopter hovered nearby.
