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US Urges North Korea to Get Serious

by Steve Herman

   NEW YORK CITY --

   Nine days after North Korea's latest nuclear test, U.S. Secretary of
   State John Kerry Sunday expressed a continued willingness to try to
   revive dialogue with Pyongyang if it freezes its atomic weapons and
   ballistic weapons development programs.

   "Serious negotiation about the future" could occur if Pyongyang does
   not "engage in any more provocative actions," Kerry told his Japanese
   and South Korean counterparts.

   A multi-national forum intended to denuclearize the Korean peninsula
   was set up in 2003, but the parties (both Koreas, China, Japan, Russia
   and the United States) have not met since December 2008, when talks
   stalled over verification issues.

   Sunday's three-way meeting followed North Korea's fifth underground
   nuclear test and an increased pace of regular missile firings -- "the
   latest reckless choices Kim Jong Un has made," Kerry said.

   Analysts, reviewing open source satellite imagery, say the impoverished
   country may have completed preparations for three more nuclear tests
   that could occur at any time.

   South Korea's foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, appeared in no mood
   Sunday to consider negotiations with his country's arch-rival, in view
   of Pyongyang's repeated defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions
   and sanctions.

   Yun called for the current U.N. General Assembly to "send out a united
   and forceful message," and impose even more robust sanctions on North
   Korea as it is "now at the final stage of nuclear weaponization."

   Yun warned that Pyongyang's weapons are a "looming perfect storm that
   may not only pounce on Northeast Asia but sweep over the entire world,"
   and said South Korea, the United States and Japan need to put a full
   stop and permanently roll back North Korea's nuclear programs by
   "whatever means we have."

   Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se of South Korea, left, Minister
   of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida of Japan, and U.S. Secretary of State
   John Kerry join hands during a meeting between the three leaders
   Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, in New York .

   Japan's foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, also called on stronger
   pressure to be applied on Pyongyang through the U.N. Security Council
   "including further sanctions, as well as taking our measures
   respectively."

   Kishida, hosting the Sunday meeting, also said in light of the threat
   from North Korea now being "totally different in dimension," the
   international community "is required to initiate a different response
   accordingly." However, he gave no specifics while reporters were
   allowed in the room for the opening remarks.

   A joint statement issued by the three countries following their meeting
   also revealed no specifics. It noted the ministers "explored ways to
   work together to ensure that all countries fully and effectively
   implement all their obligations and commitments under U.N. Security
   Council 2270, which imposed the strongest sanctions ever placed upon
   North Korea."

   Broadcasts from Pyongyang and commentaries carried in the state-run
   press in recent weeks have warned Washington and Seoul that if they
   take any military action threatening North Korea's survival, it would
   "immediately fire" its nuclear warheads.