22 September 2016•Update: 22 September 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korean President Park Geun-hye admitted Thursday her former policy of seeking dialogue with North Korea had failed -- and stressed the need for effective sanctions to be imposed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The UNSC is already set to agree on punitive measures against the North in response to its most powerful nuclear test to date earlier this month.
But Pyongyang remains undeterred as highlighted by its celebration this week of a new rocket engine test that appears to be aimed at launching a satellite -- repeating a pattern of nuclear test followed by long-range rocket launch that drew the UNSC’s last package of sanctions in March.
Describing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as having a “maniacal” obsession with nukes, Park told senior secretaries that Pyongyang had abused South Korea’s former conciliatory approach by developing its weapon capabilities.
“I think that North Korea will not be interested in dialogue on denuclearization anymore, and that its nuclear and missile provocations will further escalate,” Park was quoted as saying by local news agency Yonhap.
“Thus, the government will do its utmost to secure new, strong international sanctions at the UN Security Council that could actually coerce the North into renouncing its nuclear program.”
The South Korean president is particularly unpopular in North Korea, where state-run media insisted a day earlier that “it is necessary to make a clean sweep of Park Geun-hye without delay if the South Korean people are to escape a horrible nuclear disaster.”
Park also highlighted the North’s treatment of its people, accusing her counterpart in the reclusive state of selfishness in pouring money into nuclear and rocket development when more than 100,000 people are believed to have been left homeless due to recent flooding -- not to mention longstanding claims of food shortages.
That message was echoed on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday by the South’s foreign minister, Yun Byung-se.
In comments relayed by Yun’s ministry in Seoul, he told a human rights meeting that “the world’s most impoverished wasteland” has been diverting scarce resources into weapons of mass destruction.
The UN General Assembly has twice voted in favor of referring North Korea’s regime to the International Criminal Court.
"Despite the international community's concerted efforts in promoting human rights, we have in our midst a human rights black hole," Yun said.
He expressed his hope that the "General Assembly will send out an unequivocal message of the international community that massive human rights abuses committed by the North Korean government will have serious consequences.”
Such abuses reportedly include a number of concentration camps along with public executions and torture.
