President Park vows stern response to provocation

President Park Geun-hye presides over a National Security Council meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday, following an announcement made in North Korea in which the regime there claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. Park said the North should pay for threatening national security. / Yonhap

President convenes emergency security council meeting

By Kang Seung-woo

President Park Geun-hye said Wednesday that South Korea will cooperate with the international community to ensure that North Korea will pay the price, after Pyongyang claimed to have conducted a hydrogen bomb test in violation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

Also, Park warned that a stern response will follow if the North takes any additional provocations.

An hour after an announcement from North Korea about the nuclear test, President Park convened a National Security Council meeting at Cheong Wa Dae to work out measures to be taken in response to the latest provocation from the repressive state.

“The North Korean H-bomb test is a serious challenge to the survival and future of South Korea as well as world peace and stability,” Park said during the 40-minute meeting.

“Despite repeated warnings from the South and the international community, the North ignored these and then carried out the nuclear test. The government will seek to get the North to face U.N. sanctions and firm counteraction from our allies, including the United States.”

The U.N. resolutions ban the North from developing nuclear weapons and using ballistic missile technology and Pyongyang is already under U.N. sanctions for conducting previous nuclear and missile tests.

Hydrogen bombs are many times more powerful than conventional plutonium- or uranium-based nuclear weapons. In this context, Park said that the claimed bomb test may bring important changes to regional security — although additional analyses are required.

“Taking the current situation seriously, we need to handle this matter firmly through international sanctions on the North,” Park said, instructing diplomats to pursue diplomatic action with key neighboring countries and the U.N.

The President also said that the military should remain on high alert and strengthen the ROK-U.S. alliance’s defense abilities against further possible provocations from the Kim Jong-un regime.

“If provoked, the South will firmly retaliate against the North’s provocations,” she said.

Ahead of the security meeting, the South Korean government issued a statement that calls for the North’s complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization.

“The government will take all necessary measures against the North’s nuclear test in cooperation with allies, six-party members and the international community,” said Cho Tae-yong, deputy chief of the National Security Office, during a briefing.

Foreign Minster Yun Byung-se also met with U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert and Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command, at his office and explained the South’s assessment of the North’s claim and the outcome of the security meeting.

The National Assembly also slammed the claimed hydrogen bomb test.

“The test is a direct challenge to the 80 million lives of our people and peace on the Korean Peninsula,” said Kim Young-woo, a spokesman of the ruling Saenuri Party.

Kim further said that the Seoul government should show determination by immediately responding to calls to make the North halt any recurrence of such a provocation.

The ruling party also held a meeting of senior members to discuss the issue and listen to a briefing from the defense ministry.

The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea also condemned the North, saying that the party will not tolerate such action.

Independent lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo called the nuclear test “deplorable.” “North Korea’s nuclear program is a direct threat to the South’s security and obvious obstacle to the Korean unification,” Ahn stated on his SNS account.

“The North Korean leader said he wants to create a peaceful environment in his New Year speech, but the nuclear test is contrary to this.”