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12/22/2024 07:33:05 am

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China, South Korea to Meet in Seoul to Discuss Sanctions Against North Korea

China, South Korea, North Korea Nuclear Test

(Photo : Chung Sung Jun / Getty Images) Defense officials from China and South Korea will meet on Friday in Seoul to discuss ways to stop North Korea's nuclear program.

Following North Korea's latest nuclear test, military and defense officials from China and South Korea are slated to meet on Friday to discuss ways to stop Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons.

The meeting comes as the international community continues to pile pressure on China to deal with its neighbor-- from imposing sanctions on North Korea to altogether cutting diplomatic ties with the hermit kingdom.

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South Korea news agency Yonhap reported that senior defense officials from the two nations will meet in Seoul in a yearly forum and discuss a joint response to the test this Friday.

North Korea's nuclear test last week Wednesday angered both Beijing and Washington, with US Secretary of State John Kerry emphasizing that China's approach to Pyongyang's latest belligerent actions 'had failed."

Kerry is apparently disappointed with China's response to Pyongyang's recent brazen action saying that such an approach to the issue 'had not worked.'

In a statement, Kerry said the United States will leave it to China on the kind of approach it will take to curb North Korea's threat, but he was quick to point out that such approach has already failed in the past.

The United States and military experts have questioned Pyongyang's claim that it detonated a hydrogen bomb saying the impact of the recent blast was too small to have been a hydrogen bomb.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been pressuring China to confront North Korea and use its power and influence on Pyongyang to force the latter to cease the development of its nuclear program.

Park said China could use its permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council to draw up plans to being an end to the DPRK's nuclear development by imposing effective and stiffer sanctions against the belligerent nation.

"I believe the Chinese government will not allow the situation on the Korean peninsula to deteriorate further," Park said at a news conference.

The US sent its envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, to Seoul on Wednesday to discuss the North's latest provocative actions with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts.

Reports indicate that the US and South Korea have agreed that a 'meaningful' new sanctions resolution is needed from the UN Security Council to address North Korea's threat.

Sung said China should realize that this (North Korea nuclear test) is a serious matter and that the US is not taking this threat in a "business as usual approach." 

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