NK weekly-external news
Summary of external news of North Korea this week
SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of external news in North Korea this week.
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Top nuclear envoy discusses N.K.-Russia threats with foreign diplomats in Seoul
SEOUL -- South Korea's top nuclear envoy discussed the deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia in meetings on Korean Peninsula issues with foreign diplomats in Seoul, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Lee Jun-il, director general for Korean Peninsula policy, invited the ambassadors and diplomats from 30 countries to two separate roundtable sessions on North Korean issues on Monday and Wednesday, the ministry said.
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Pentagon decries N. Korea's recent missile launches as 'irresponsible'
WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon spokesperson on Tuesday criticized North Korea's recent ballistic missile launches as "irresponsible," and reiterated the United States' calls for the recalcitrant regime to return to diplomacy.
Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder made the remarks after Pyongyang claimed to have conducted a multiple warhead missile capability test last week, and test-fired a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a super-large warhead this week.
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N. Korea's sending of trash-filled balloons is 'form of soft terrorism': CSIS report
WASHINGTON -- North Korea's obnoxious sending of trash-filled balloons to South Korea is a "form of soft terrorism," a U.S. think tank report said Tuesday, stressing it should not be taken lightly though it reflects the recalcitrant regime's "weakness" and "insecurity."
Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Andy Lim, an associate fellow with the CSIS Korea Chair, released the report that analyzed Pyongyang's campaign involving garbage-filled balloons in a question-and-answer format.
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(LEAD) Condoleezza Rice pins hope on China in denuclearizing N. Korea
SEOUL -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that China might be willing to cooperate in denuclearizing North Korea amid growing ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to be cooperative.
"I think that we must convince China first that nuclear weapons in North Korea are not in China's interest," Rice said during a forum in Seoul.
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