ed Looming nuclear test

N. Korea must respond to Park’s ‘trust-building process’

The prospects for inter-Korean relations are becoming darker because North Korea vowed Wednesday to end efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and hinted at conducting another nuclear test.

With barely one month to go before a new administration is launched in South Korea, it’s quite worrisome and disappointing that the North made such a reckless threat, which will result in only raising tension on the peninsula.

The impoverished country warned that it would push ahead with strengthening its nuclear deterrent in a swift response to a resolution by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on its Dec. 12 rocket launch.

The defiant statement was issued by North Korea’s Foreign Ministry hours after the 15-nation council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the launch as a violation of a ban against Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile activities.

The UNSC demanded that the North suspend ``all activities related to its ballistic missile program’’ and ``abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.’’

The resolution also tightened existing sanctions by ordering the freeze of more North Korean assets and imposing a travel ban on four more officials. The council, in particular, expressed its determination to take ``significant action’’ in the event of any further launch or nuclear test.

While it’s true that North Korea’s tough reactions cast dark clouds over President-elect Park Geun-hye’s campaign pledge of a ``trust-building process,’’ the fact that China joined in approving the resolution for the first time in four years, to expand sanctions on the Stalinist country, appears to be highly significant progress.

China had been reportedly in favor of a less powerful “presidential statement,” apparently conscious of the serious impact on its neighbor. But the council’s veto-wielding permanent member changed its position at the last moment in what appeared to be a carefully-calculated move to clarify its firm opposition to the North’s fresh atomic test. Now China might want to warn that it will slap on harsher sanctions if the reclusive country pushes ahead with a test despite its support for the resolution.

What’s most urgent is to deter Pyongyang from a fresh nuclear test and persuade it to return to the six-nation denuclearization talks that have been stalled since a 2009 rocket launch. Given the North’s furious reaction to Resolution 2087, it won’t be easy.

North Korea, for its part, must know that its ill-advised adventurism will make its isolation deeper to the detriment of its stability. The North should make a wise choice in response to the incoming South Korean president’s repeated commitment to respecting previous agreements with the reclusive country.

Few will dispute that North Korea will be one of Park’s most challenging issues during her five-year term. In this regard, Park and her soon-to-be-fixed security team will have to polish up policies toward North Korea through a coolheaded assessment of the situation.