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The United States remains open to dialogue with North Korea despite rising tensions caused by North Korea’s missile launches and the deployment of military aircraft near the South Korean border.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile into the sea, firing about 560 shells into the maritime buffer zone between the two Koreas on Friday.
On the same day, the South Korean military scrambled 10 North Korean fighter jets after spotting them making threatening flights near the border. There were no reports of clashes between the two countries.
“I would like to reiterate once again that our position on diplomacy and dialogue remains unchanged in light of these recent developments. told reporters.
Patel said Washington has condemned North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches and urged the Kim Jong-un regime to cease all provocations and return to diplomacy.
“We continue to believe that our ultimate goal is the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and we remain open to diplomacy and dialogue as a step towards getting there,” he added.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Friday that North Korea’s shelling of the buffer zone violated a 2018 inter-Korean agreement calling for an end to hostile military activity between the two countries.
Minister Yoon said, “We are doing our best to prepare for North Korea’s provocations.” Korea Times He stressed that the public needs to be “firmly aware” of North Korea.
North Korea vows ‘overwhelming military countermeasures’
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced on Saturday statement A spokesman for the communist regime’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) warned of “overwhelming military countermeasures” against the enemy.
A KPA spokesman said, “The South Korean military will be fully advised to immediately stop any reckless provocations that provoke military tensions in frontline areas.”
North Korea has escalated missile launches and sent fighter jets in retaliation for South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States on the Korean peninsula, which it sees as a “rehearsal for aggression.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country would not engage in dialogue with an enemy who poses a military threat to the reclusive state because he felt there was “no need to do so.”
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said last month that Washington had tried to negotiate with North Korea to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, but the Kim regime had refused to cooperate.
“This dialogue and diplomatic offer, at least so far, has been met only with additional provocations,” Price said at a press conference on Sept. 26.
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Aldgra Fredly is a Malaysia-based freelance writer covering Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.
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