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| ▲ President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a ceremony at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul on Sept. 1, 2023, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the academy's foundation. (Yonhap) |
Yoon-NK threat
Yoon says he will call for resolute response to N.K. threats at ASEAN, G20 summits: interview
SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol has said he will urge the international community to resolutely respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats when he attends a series of multilateral summits in Indonesia and India this week, according to an interview published Monday.
Yoon made the remark in a written interview with the Associated Press published a day before he heads to Jakarta to attend annual summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). From Indonesia, he will travel to New Delhi on Friday to attend a Group of 20 (G20) summit.
"At the upcoming ASEAN-related summits and the G20 summit, I intend to urge the international community to resolutely respond to North Korea's ever-escalating missile provocations and nuclear threats and to work closely together on its denuclearization," Yoon was quoted as saying.
"As long as the U.N. Security Council sanctions currently in place are faithfully implemented, North Korea's financial means for developing (weapons of mass destruction) can be blocked to a significant extent," he added.
Yoon particularly noted the need to deter what he said were North Korea's main sources of funding for its nuclear and missile development, citing stealing cryptocurrency, labor exports, facilitating maritime transshipments and other illegal activities.
"The international community must clearly demonstrate that its determination to stop North Korea's nuclear program is much stronger than North Korea's will to continue developing it," he said.
Yoon also said China "seems to have considerable leverage" over the North, but "what really matters is whether Beijing will use its leverage, and if so, how much and in what way."
North Korea's nuclear program has "a negative effect on China's national interests by further disrupting regional order, among other things," he said.
Yoon also gave a dire assessment of North Korea's economy, saying it is in its worst condition since leader Kim Jong-un took power in 2011.
"North Korean authorities are wasting scarce financial resources on the development of nuclear and missile capabilities," he said. "Consequently, the hardships faced by North Koreans in their everyday lives are worsening, and its economy continues to register negative growth."
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