North Korean threat enters ‘new phase’: allies

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

North Korea’s recent advances in nuclear weapons represent “a new-phase threat that’s grave and urgent,” defense officials from South Korea, the United States, and Japan said on Wednesday.

Representatives of the three nations held a video conference in which they vowed to place “maximum pressure” on the North following the reclusive state’s intercontinental ballistic missile test last Friday, the second in less than a month.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry relayed the outcome of the meeting involving Maj. Gen. Jang Kyung-soo, the South’s acting deputy minister for policy, along with U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs David Helvey, and Japanese Defense Policy Bureau Director General.

They “strongly condemned the North Korean launch of the ICBM-class missile as a clear and flagrant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions,” the South Korean side stated in comments carried by local news agency Yonhap.

The outlet additionally reported that there have been almost daily discussions between Seoul and Washington.

While the UN Security Council has not even agreed on sanctions in response to the North’s first ICBM launch on July 4, the fear is that Pyongyang is getting ever closer to realizing its claim of being able to strike the American mainland.

South Korea and the U.S. are set to kick off their latest joint military drill later this month, having demonstrated the force of American strategic bombers over the peninsula this past weekend.

Although Seoul’s Moon Jae-in administration also remains keen on dialogue, Pyongyang has so far declined to accept the South’s offer last month of inter-Korean military talks.

But it emerged Wednesday that the North rejected a proposal for a joint civilian celebration on Aug. 15 marking the 72nd anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan.

The South Korean group behind the plan said Pyongyang explained it did not feel such an event would be appropriate given the current security situation.