The US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, warned this Tuesday (06.07.2022) from Seoul to North Korea with executing a “quick and forceful” response if the Kim Jong-un regime carries out the nuclear test that he has been preparing for months.
The threat came at a press conference after Sherman met with his South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun-dong, with whom he discussed Pyongyang’s latest weapons tests, who has not responded to the offers of dialogue that Washington has been raising since last year.
“Any nuclear test would be a total violation of the UN Security Council resolutions,” Sherman recalled in statements collected by the Yonhap agency.
“Faced with such a test, there would be a quick and forceful response,” he added.
on the eve,US and South Korean forces responded to the eight ballistic missilesmissiles (SRBM) launched by Pyongyang on Sunday (the largest sequence of launches in a single test by the regime in this 2022) also firing eight SRBM missiles of the ATACMS system on a test basis.
–
It is the second time that the allies have responded in this way to a North Korean projectile test since the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol became president on May 10, who has promised a stronger hand if Pyongyang carries out weapons tests.
Satellites capture preparations
Since the beginning of the year, satellites have captured preparations in Punggye-ri (northeast of the country), for a new nuclear test for which, according to experts, the only thing missing is the execution order of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Sherman wanted to reiterate today, despite the wishes of the Biden Administration to resume the dialogue without preconditions on denuclearization, stalled since 2019.
“The United States harbors no hostile intent toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea’s official name). We continue to urge Pyongyang to stop its destabilizing and provocative activities and choose the path of diplomacy,” he said.
North Korea approved in 2021 a five-year weapons modernization plan that is behind the record number of missile launches carried out this year and the aforementioned nuclear test.
–
