March 5, 2013 -- Updated 1923 GMT (0323 HKT)
Report: North Korea threatened on Tuesday to nullify the armistice
agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953, citing U.S.-led
international moves to slap new sanctions against it over its recent
nuclear test. FULL STORY
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PHOTOS
March 5, 2013 -- Updated 1834 GMT (0234 HKT)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,
center, poses with chiefs of branch social security stations in this
undated picture released by North Korea's official news agency on
November 27, 2012. North Korea said Thursday that it plans to carry out a
new nuclear test and more long-range rocket launches, all of which it
said are a part of a new phase of confrontation with the United States.
HIDE CAPTION
Kim Jong Un and his military
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: A draft resolution slapping new sanctions on N. Korea goes before U.N. Security Council
- NEW: Analyst: North Korea's threats are mostly bluster, but there is more trouble to come
- North Korea has threatened to nullify the 1953 Korean War truce, South Korean media say
- Pyongyang continues to make "belligerent and reckless moves," John Kerry says
The North's military said
it will also cut off direct phone links with South Korea at the
inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, Yonhap said, citing North
Korea's news outlet.
North and South Korea
have technically been at war for decades. The 1950-53 civil war ended in
a truce rather than a peace treaty.
A draft U.S. resolution
to authorize more sanctions against North Korea in response to its
controversial nuclear test was formally introduced Tuesday at the U.N.
Security Council by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice.
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No vote on the draft
resolution is expected Tuesday. A senior Obama administration official
earlier told CNN that the United States and China, a key North Korean
ally, had reached a tentative deal on the wording of the proposed
resolution.
The two nations have been negotiating for weeks on the question.
Asked about sanctions, China's envoy Li Baodong said: "It depends on the council members."
There has been major concern in recent years among world powers about North Korea's nuclear aspirations.
Pyongyang continues to
make "belligerent and reckless moves that threaten the region, their
neighbors and now, directly, the United States of America," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a CNN interview Tuesday.
"It's very easy for Kim
Jong Un to prove his good intent here also. Just don't fire the next
missile. Don't have the next test. Just say you're ready to talk," said
Kerry, speaking on the last full day of his first international trip as
the nation's top diplomat. Kim is North Korea's leader.
Addressing reporters
later in Qatar, Kerry again put the onus on Kim to act, saying, "The
American people and the world" would like to see him "take responsible
actions" for peace.
"Rather than threaten to
abrogate and threaten to move in some new direction, the world would be
better served" if Kim tried to engage in legitimate dialogue, Kerry
said.
"Our preference is not to brandish threats to each other. It's to get to the table" to negotiate, he said.
As a permanent member of
the Security Council with veto power, China can strongly influence the
body's decisions and has previously resisted strong sanctions on the Kim
regime, which it props up economically.
The two communist
countries have been close allies since China supported the North with
materiel and troops in the Korean War. The United States backed the
South in the conflict, fighting side by side with its troops.
Analysts say Beijing wants to maintain the North as a buffer between its border and South Korea, a U.S. ally.
Beijing's government on
Tuesday said it strives for a "nuclear free peninsula." It repeated its
support for the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of North Korea's
nuclear tests but also called for a muted response to it.
'Paying the price'
Mark Fitzpatrick,
director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Programme at the
UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNN that
while the resolution will probably not be too onerous, the fact that
China went along with another U.N. sanctions measure against North Korea
reflects the growing anger and disillusionment that Beijing feels
toward its supposed ally.
"Kim Jong Un is now
paying the price for going ahead with a nuclear test despite Chinese
warnings not to create trouble during the political transition that has
been under way in Beijing the past year," Fitzpatrick said.
"The real question,
though, is the degree to which China will be willing to implement the
U.N. sanctions and to impose punishment of its own.
"A sharp drop in Chinese
grain sales to North Korea in January may be a sign that China's
support for U.N. sanctions is more than just a symbolic punishment."
Fitzpatrick
characterized North Korea's reported threat to nullify the 1953
armistice as "largely bluster," pointing out that the country has
"broken the armistice many times, most recently in 2010 by sinking a
South Korean corvette and shelling a South Korean-populated island."
But, he added, "the
threat does point to more trouble to come from the recalcitrant hermit
kingdom. Things are going to get worse before they get better."
Military exercises
Pyongyang said the
underground nuclear blast it conducted on February 12 was more powerful
than its two previous detonations and used a smaller, lighter device,
suggesting advances in its weapons program.
It was the first nuclear test the isolated state has carried out since its young leader
inherited power in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim
Jong Il, who made building up North Korea's military strength the focus
of his 17-year rule.
Like the regime's
previous tests in 2006 and 2009, the move prompted widespread
international condemnation, as well as a promise of tough action at the
United Nations.
North Korea's government regularly rails against sanctions imposed on it.
The staging this week of
joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, known as Foal Eagle, has
added to the simmering tensions, the official Korean Central News Agency
reported Monday.
It described the
training exercises as "an open declaration of a war" in the face of
repeated warnings from the North that they should not be held.
The exercises have
"touched off the pent-up resentment of the service personnel and people
of (North Korea) and compelled them to harden their pledge to take
thousand-fold retaliation against the enemies," the news agency said.
CNN's Elise Labott, Richard Roth, Anna Maja, Michael Pearson and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.
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