China urges United States, North Korea to hold direct talks

Feb 16, 2016, 12:44

Last week, Seoul suspended its operations at Kaesong following the North's recent rocket and nuclear tests to cut off the money supply. The team also includes vice ministers of the finance, trade and interior, and officials from relevant government agencies.

The Kaesong industrial zone, which sits 10km north of the border between the two sides, was officially shuttered last Thursday after North Korea expelled all South Korean managers and placed the complex under military control.

In a statement Sunday, South Korea's Unification ministry said North Korea was spending 70% of wages destined for workers at Kaesong Industrial Complex.

Both moves violate longstanding United Nations resolutions and could result in even stronger sanctions than those in effect against North Korea. North Korea launched a rocket February 7, carrying what it said was an Earth observation satellite into space.

Beijing has already expressed its concerns over another recent development - the imminent start of official negotiations between Seoul and Washington on installing a controversial missile defense system known as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) in South Korea. The industrial park was a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

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North Korea regularly condemns Park in sexist and violent language, including recently saying that she lives upon "the groin of her American boss".

The Pentagon made the announcement after North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying what it called a satellite. With hints of a legitimate nuclear program, Gardner says now is the time to pay attention to North Korea.

Sanctions of that nature might dial up the pressure on the North Korea regime a notch, but are very unlikely to convince it to abandon a nuclear program that has become a cornerstone of the regime's own national security calculations, experts said.

"The focus of the nuclear issue on the peninsula is between the United States and North Korea", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.

While North Korea's economic isolation and the global financial system make it tricky to identify sanction targets and prove violations, the new US legislation could hit companies in China that deal with the North, including those that buy its main exports - coal and minerals.

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Tensions have spiked on the Korean peninsula after the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un conducted a long-range rocket launch and a fourth nuclear test.

The project, which began during an era of relatively good relations between the Koreas, combined cheap North Korean labour with the capital and technology of wealthy South Korea.

His report, dated January 19 but published on Monday, also said three experts should be appointed to find the best legal path to hold North Korea to account and find "creative and practical" ways to establish the truth and ensure justice for victims.

It is reassuring in this regard that Park, in close cooperation with the USA, is moving fast to reinforce defense capabilities.

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