SEOUL –
South Korea said on Tuesday that US President-elect Donald Trump issued a “clear warning” to North Korea, refuting Pyongyang’s ballistic missile requirements.
“North Korea is just saying that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the United States,” Trump tweeted. Trump’s tweak was a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared to be trying to announce his country as a new president in a “final phase” of developing intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) pressure.
Kim also said that last year his country greatly strengthened its nuclear arsenal.
Washington has repeatedly said that it would never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, but Trump had not explicitly stated his policy to the isolated Stalinist state.
“President Trump’s message was important because it was his first reference to North Korea’s nuclear program and could be seen as a clear warning,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-Hyuck said in a briefing. .
He said the new US administration was clearly aware of the “seriousness and urgency” of the Pyongyang nuclear threat because of “positive outreach” by South Korea.
US policy on the North would remain largely unchanged, he said.
“They are maintaining an unwavering stance on the need for sanctions on North Korea,” Cho said.
In a New Year’s speech on Sunday, Kim did not make a specific reference to the incoming Trump administration. But he called on Washington to make a “resolute decision to withdraw its anachronistic hostile North Korea policy”.
Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realizing its full nuclear ambitions, especially as it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM.
However, it carried out two nuclear tests and numerous missile launches last year alone in pursuit of its oft-stated goal – developing a weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead.
