Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Seoul, Washington have no plan to organize naval blockade of North Korea

1 December 2017 12:53 (UTC+04:00)
Seoul, Washington have no plan to organize naval blockade of North Korea

By Kamila Aliyeva

South Korea and the U.S. do not currently plan military action against Pyongyang, including the naval blockade, TASS reported.

This information appeared after the leaders of the two countries held a second telephone conversation on November 30 within the last two days.

They discussed ways of interaction against the backdrop of North Korea’s development of missile technologies.

“The issue of naval blockade was never mentioned in a telephone conversation with [U.S. President] Donald Trump,” a representative of the South Korean President's office said.

Earlier on Thursday, Pentagon Chief James Mattis said that the U.S. intends to “tirelessly” seek to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue with the help of the United Nations and will make diplomatic efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon the programs for the development of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery.

“I do not want to say that diplomacy does not work. We will continue to work through the UN Security Council, we will tirelessly follow this path. At the same time, our diplomats will act from a position of strength, because we have military options,” he added.

When North Korea conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile test on Tuesday, the Pentagon leader noted that Pyongyang continues to make attempts to create weapons that threaten peace in the region and the entire planet.

Pyongyang conducted its first ballistic test launch on November 28. The missile was reported to have flown for 50 minutes on a very high trajectory, reaching 4,500 km above the earth before coming down nearly 1,000 km from the launch site off the west coast of Japan, according to the South Korean Chiefs of Staff Committee.

This is the first missile launch carried out by North Korea since September 15. Since then, for 75 days, Pyongyang has refrained from military provocations.

The active phase of the crisis on the Korean peninsula began in August 2017, when Pyongyang tested ballistic missiles and announced the successful testing of the hydrogen bomb.

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously imposed a set of sanctions against North Korea on September 11 over the country’s hydrogen bomb test which was conducted on September 3.

The sanctions included limits on import of crude oil and oil products, a ban on textile exports and new visas for North Korean oversees workers.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more