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U.S. envoy says North Korean leader 'begging for war' as U.N. mulls sanctions

By Christine Kim and Michelle Nichols

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides guidance on a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang September 3, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS

 

SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Monday said countries trading with North Korea were aiding its "dangerous nuclear intentions" as the United Nations Security Council mulled tough new sanctions and the isolated regime showed signs of planning more missile tests.

 

South Korea said it was talking to Washington about deploying aircraft carriers and strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula following the North's sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday.

 

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in a telephone call to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea's missiles, South Korea's presidential office said, enabling it to strike North Korea with greater force in the event of a military conflict.

 

At a Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said North Korea's Kim Jong Un was "begging for war" and urged the 15-member group to impose the "strongest possible" sanctions to deter him.

 

"War is never something the United States wants. We don't want it now. But our country's patience is not unlimited. We will defend our allies and our territory," Haley said.

 

"The United States will look at every country that does business with North Korea as a country that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions," she said.

 

Haley said the United States will circulate a new Security Council resolution on North Korea this week and wants a vote on it next Monday.

 

China, a top trading partner with North Korea, and Russia called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

 

"China will never allow chaos and war on the (Korean) Peninsula," said Liu Jieyi, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, urging North Korea to stop taking actions that were "wrong" and not in its own interests.

Russia said peace in the region was in jeopardy.

 

"Sanctions alone will not help solve the issue," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said.

 

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Typically, China and Russia only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions.

 

Trump had asked to be briefed on all available military options, according to his defence chief.

 

Officials said activity around missile launch sites suggested North Korea planned more missile tests.

 

"We have continued to see signs of possibly more ballistic missile launches. We also forecast North Korea could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile," Jang Kyoung-soo, acting deputy minister of national defense policy, told a parliament hearing on Monday.

 

North Korea tested two ICBMs in July that could fly about 10,000 km (6,200 miles), putting many parts of the U.S. mainland within range and prompting a new round of tough international sanctions.

 

MILITARY EXERCISES

 

South Korea's air force and army conducted exercises involving long-range air-to-surface and ballistic missiles on Monday following the North's nuclear test on Sunday, its joint chiefs of staff said in a statement.

 

In addition to the drill, South Korea will cooperate with the United States and seek to deploy "strategic assets like aircraft carriers and strategic bombers", Jang said.

 

South Korea's defence ministry also said it would deploy the four remaining launchers of a new U.S. missile defence system after the completion of an environmental assessment by the government.

 

The rollout of the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system at a site south of the South Korean capital, Seoul, which is vehemently opposed by neighbouring China and Russia, had been delayed since June.

 

At the Security Council, neither Russia nor China mentioned their long-held opposition to THAAD or the prospect of further U.N. sanctions in the wake of North Korea's nuclear test.

 

North Korea said it tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile on Sunday, prompting a warning from U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis of a "massive" military response from the United States if it or its allies were threatened.

 

Trump has previously vowed to stop North Korea developing nuclear weapons and said he would unleash "fire and fury" if it threatened U.S. territory.

 

Despite the tough talk, the immediate focus of the international response was on tougher economic sanctions.

Diplomats have said the Security Council could now consider banning North Korean textile exports and its national airline, stop supplies of oil to the government and military, prevent North Koreans from working abroad and add top officials to a blacklist to subject them to an asset freeze and travel ban.

 

Asked about Trump's threat to punish countries that trade with North Korea, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China has dedicated itself to resolving the North Korean issue via talks, and China's efforts had been recognised.

 

"What we absolutely cannot accept is that on the one hand (we are) making arduous efforts to peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, and on the other hand (our) interests are being sanctioned or harmed. This is both not objective and not fair," he told a regular briefing.

 

On possible new U.N. sanctions, and whether China would support cutting off oil, Geng said it would depend on the outcome of Security Council discussions.

 

China's state-run Xinhua news agency said in an editorial that North Korea was "playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship" and it should wake up to the fact that such a tactic "can never bring security it pursues".

 

SKEPTICISM

 

While South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on Monday to work with the United States to pursue stronger sanctions, Russia voiced scepticism.

 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said sanctions on North Korea had reached the limit of their impact. Any more would be aimed at breaking its economy, so a decision to impose further constraints would become dramatically harder, he told a BRICS summit in China.

 

South Korea says the aim of stronger sanctions is to draw North Korea into dialogue. But, in a series of tweets on Sunday, Trump also appeared to rebuke South Korea for that approach.

 

"South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!" Trump said on Twitter.

 

Still, Trump's response was more orderly and less haphazard than he had offered after North Korea's previous hostile actions.

 

His handling of its latest nuclear test reflected a more traditional approach to crisis management, which U.S. officials said illustrated the influence of Mattis and the new White House chief of staff, retired Marine Corps General John Kelly.

 

Japanese and South Korean stock markets both closed down about 1 percent on Monday, while safe-haven assets including gold and sovereign bonds ticked higher, but trade was cautious. U.S. stock markets were closed for the Labor Day holiday.

 

"Assuming the worst on the Korean peninsula has not proven to be a winning trading strategy this year," said Sean Callow, a senior foreign exchange strategist at Westpac Bank.

 

"Investors seem reluctant to price in anything more severe than trade sanctions, and the absence of another 'fire and fury' Trump tweet has helped encourage markets to respond warily."

 

South Korea's finance minister vowed to support financial markets if instability showed signs of spreading to the real economy.

 

(Additional reporting by Shin-hyung Lee, Hyunjoo Jin and Cynthia Kim in SEOUL, Steve Holland, David Brunnstrom, Tim Ahmann, David Shepardson and John Walcott in WASHINGTON, John Ruwitch in SHANGHAI, Wayne Cole and Swati Pandey in SYDNEY; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Jeff Mason; Editing by Paul Simao and Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-05

[LannaGuy]

It is true that they are being extremely provocative and the BIG three should shut them down (China, Russia and USA) but at the moment there is no consensus and war may be on the way. If I was USA I'd not 'sweat the small stuff' and work for consensus before the bombs start falling.

[boomerangutang]

Despite the old adage: 'familiarity breeds contempt', . . . .

it's been shown a million times, when people get more familiar with each other, they like each other more - than if they stay strangers.   

 

Granted, too much familiarity (and close proximity) can cause dislike, as illustrated by a Cosmonaut who said; "put any two people in a small space capsule for ten days, and you'll wind up with two people who hate each other." (it sounds like some marriages I've heard about)

 

RE; NK and US:  I would encourage a series of interactions between people from both countries.  Sports, art, dance, music, hiking, cultural, and so on.  Get any two groups, one from NK and one from US together to do wholesome and/or artsy activities, and those people will A. get to know each, and B. probably like/trust each other better.

 

I realize it's a 'pie-in-the-sky' suggestions, but it's better than pointing missiles at each other, isn't it?

 

 

Edited September 5, 2017 by boomerangutang

[Thaidream]

The average person in America does not want war and is tired of governments that have pushed the US into wars. Most of the politicians who support these wars never have to fight them .

 

The sabre rattling on North Korea is ridiculous- both the US and N Korea need to sit down at the negotiating table along with china  and/or Russia as a sponsor for such talks.  In the interim N Korea stops its missile testing and the US stops its military drills in Korea. Sanctions are a waste of time and only prolong the agony and will infuriate China . The US does not have a real good position in this matter- if it goes to war- a million people die and the Korea ad Japanese economy decimated.   The only real option is 

negotiation- Americans know this. It is the fool in the White House who seems to not understand the issues.

 

Donald Trump needs to shut the hell up and let  the professionals handle this issue.

[Justgrazing]

Kim too busy peeping into neighbours bedrooms failed to notice the very angry Apache's just behind him .. 

[Dumbastheycome]

6 hours ago, Thaidream said:

The average person in America does not want war and is tired of governments that have pushed the US into wars. Most of the politicians who support these wars never have to fight them .

 

The sabre rattling on North Korea is ridiculous- both the US and N Korea need to sit down at the negotiating table along with china  and/or Russia as a sponsor for such talks.  In the interim N Korea stops its missile testing and the US stops its military drills in Korea. Sanctions are a waste of time and only prolong the agony and will infuriate China . The US does not have a real good position in this matter- if it goes to war- a million people die and the Korea ad Japanese economy decimated.   The only real option is 

negotiation- Americans know this. It is the fool in the White House who seems to not understand the issues.

 

Donald Trump needs to shut the hell up and let  the professionals handle this issue.

Quite  right.  But  in defiance  of the  fact the  average  USA   citizen has  suffered   a lifetime  of compliance to the  propagandist  acclamation  of  superior  correctness instead of considering that  that same  majority   are  donkeys being  led  by the  illusion of  a  golden  carrot kept  just  out of reach ! 

When a  a  finger  of  defiant  challenge is  shoved  up the  nose  of those who administrate that  propaganda at a  dangerous  level it  creates almost as  dangerous  confusion !

Such  brinkmanship is likely  to  ensue in  action that will inflict  on the  globe  but  in  matter of  real  fact  an issue  with  the  ridiculous USA self  centered administrative policies designed  to  favour  a  very   elite  few !

What is  important  to those  elite  few is  not  the   global  events   but  what they intend  to  contrive  of it  in the aftermath . And  those  elite  are   not  true   USA  citizens.  They have  simply   been using  the  location !

 

[Scott]

Off-topic post and reply removed.

 

[craigt3365]

On 09/05/2017 at 8:20 PM, Dumbastheycome said:

Quite  right.  But  in defiance  of the  fact the  average  USA   citizen has  suffered   a lifetime  of compliance to the  propagandist  acclamation  of  superior  correctness instead of considering that  that same  majority   are  donkeys being  led  by the  illusion of  a  golden  carrot kept  just  out of reach ! 

When a  a  finger  of  defiant  challenge is  shoved  up the  nose  of those who administrate that  propaganda at a  dangerous  level it  creates almost as  dangerous  confusion !

Such  brinkmanship is likely  to  ensue in  action that will inflict  on the  globe  but  in  matter of  real  fact  an issue  with  the  ridiculous USA self  centered administrative policies designed  to  favour  a  very   elite  few !

What is  important  to those  elite  few is  not  the   global  events   but  what they intend  to  contrive  of it  in the aftermath . And  those  elite  are   not  true   USA  citizens.  They have  simply   been using  the  location !

 

Good gosh, what a ridiculous  rant. And totally not true.

[Dumbastheycome]

9 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Good gosh, what a ridiculous  rant. And totally not true.

Prove  it!

[craigt3365]

6 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

Prove  it!

Not needed. The entire post matches your nic.

[Scott]

Let's keep it civil.  Don't bother taking the bait.