South Korea and the United States agreed Wednesday to make intensive efforts in the coming months to cut off cash flows into North Korea so as to limit Pyongyang's ability to develop nuclear weapons, a top South Korean official said.
The agreement was reached when South Korea's deputy national security advisor, Cho Tae-yong, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken held the third round of high-level strategic consultations on North Korea policy in Washington.
"We agreed on the need to further strengthen our efforts in order to change North Korea's calculus. In particular, we shared the view that we should come up with effective ways to cut off cash flowing into North Korea," Cho told Yonhap News Agency after the four-hour talks with Blinken.
South Korea's Deputy National Security Advisor Cho Tae-yong speaks to Yonhap News Agecy after talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken at the State Department on July 27. (Yonhap)
"It's difficult to speak in detail, but as there is already a framework for implementing sanctions internationally, we agreed to make intensive efforts in the next two to three months ... to cut off cash flows into North Korea as much as possible so as to limit North Korea's ability to continue nuclear development," he said.
Wednesday's meeting came amid heightened concern that the North could carry out yet another nuclear test, which would be its fifth.
Pyongyang's foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, threatened Tuesday that the country could conduct one depending on the "U.S.' attitude."
Cho said that South Korea and the U.S. share an assessment that the North is ready to conduct a nuclear test at any time if it decides to. The two sides also agreed to put together "much more powerful sanctions" in the form of a U.N. Security Council resolution if Pyongyang conducts a nuclear test.
"Though the current U.N. Security Council Resolution 2270 is a much stronger sanctions resolution than before, there are points that we need to supplement and there are areas that should be newly included in the scope of sanctions. Today, we exchanged views on the need to put together a strong sanctions resolution in case North Korea conducts a fifth nuclear test."
North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the following month, drawing widespread international condemnation and leading the U.N. Security Council to impose the harshest sanctions ever imposed on the regime.
Undeterred by the sanctions, Pyongyang kept on launching missiles, including the intermediate-range Musudan missile, believed to be capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam, as well as a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
Earlier this month, the North Korea-monitoring website 38 North reported that satellite imagery shows high-level activity at the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site, raising concern the regime may be preparing for another nuclear test.
China's implementation of sanctions is considered key to pressure on the North. But concerns flared in recent weeks that Beijing might be reluctant to render full-scale cooperation in pressuring the North in anger after the U.S. and South Korea decided to deploy the THAAD missile defense system to the South.
China has strongly opposed THAAD's deployment in South Korea, saying the system, especially the powerful "X-band" radar, could be used against it, despite repeated assurances from the U.S. and the South that the battery is purely defensive and would be used only to cope with North Korean threats.
Cho said, however, that he believes China will fully implement sanctions.
"China is a permanent member of the Security Council. Security Council resolutions are something that it decided on its own as a permanent Security Council member. China tells us it will sincerely carry out the Security Council resolution and we believe China will do so," he said
Even though differences could arise over THAAD or any other issues, Cho said that it would be unreasonable for such differences to have negative effects on the handling of the North Korean nuclear issue, which is a question between the international community and North Korea. (Yonhap)