North Korea won’t stop arms tests anytime soon, Seoul warns

SOUTH Korea has issued a stern warning to its allies, predicting the North will keep testing its nuclear weapons to win leverage with Washington.

KIM JONG-UN’S regime will continue to test and improve its ballistic missiles until it achieves the aim of becoming a nuclear power, South Korea has claimed.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry has warned that Kim will use his weapons program as a way of gaining leverage with Washington.

It warned the North “will continue to advance its nuclear and missile capabilities” next year.

In a report published by the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul and cited by The New York Times, security analyst Shin Beom-chul said: “For North Korea, there is a big difference between entering negotiations with the United States after acquiring full ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities and starting such talks without them.”

Analysts also said North Korea wants to use potential arms reduction talks as a way of levering concessions with Washington.

North Korea has sent ripples around the world with a series of missile tests this year. Picture: AFP/KCNA/KNS/STR

North Korea has made major advances in its weapons programs this year, launching 20 missiles and conducting its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September.

The secretive regime claimed it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb and that its missile launch on November 29 proved it was capable of hitting mainland United States.

However some analysts have pointed out the country hasn’t mastered the ability for warheads to survive re-entry into the atmosphere.

The missile launches and tests have sparked global alarm and tough new sanctions against the regime.

Just this week the US Treasury Department issued sanctions against two officials it described as “key leaders of North Korea’s unlawful weapons programs”.

The sanctions against Kim Jong-sik and Ri Pyong-chol block them from any property or interests in property within US jurisdictions, and prohibit them from transactions with American citizens.

Treasury said the men are senior officials in North Korea’s Munitions Industry Department.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions are part of the United States’ “maximum pressure campaign” to isolate North Korea and “achieve a fully denuclearised Korean Peninsula”.

And on Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions against North Korea in response to its latest launch of a ballistic missile.

Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, expressed hope this week that the continuing campaign of sanctions and pressure will eventually force North Korea into “making the right decision” and engaging in dialogue over its nuclear program.

Mr Baik noted it was the seventh time the US Treasury has imposed unilateral sanctions against the North since the start of President Donald Trump’s administration.

He also pointed out that the two North Koreans had already been under UN Security Council sanctions.

— With AP