North Korea wants US attention by showing off nuclear might: Yoon

06/10/2024

North Korea wants US attention by showing off nuclear might: Yoon

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, (third from left), boards the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier at the South Korean naval base in Busan, South Korea. (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct 6, (AP): North Korea’s recent disclosure of a nuclear facility was likely an attempt to grab US attention ahead of next month’s presidential election, and the North will likely stage major provocations like a nuclear test explosion and a long-range missile test, South Korea’s president says.

President Yoon Suk Yeol shared his government’s assessment on the recent moves by North Korea with The Associated Press, before he leaves Sunday for a three-nation trip that includes a stop in Laos for summits with Southeast Asian and other world leaders. At Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-related meetings, Yoon says he’ll emphasize that North Korea’s nuclear disarmament is essential to regional peace.

“At the upcoming ASEAN-related summits, I will stress the importance of denuclearization of North Korea, which is a prerequisite for realizing a free, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” Yoon said in written responses to questions from the AP.

Concerns about North Korea have grown in recent weeks, with the country unveiling a secretive uranium-enrichment facility, vowing to build more nuclear weapons and continuing its provocative missile tests. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to destroy South Korea with his nuclear weapons, if provoked.

Many foreign experts say North Korea eventually hopes to use an expanded nuclear arsenal as leverage to win outside concessions like sanctions relief, after a new US president is elected. They say Kim likely thinks a win by Republican candidate Donald Trump, whom he engaged in high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018-19, would increase his chances to get what he wants than Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. During campaigns, Trump boasted about his personal ties with Kim, while Harris said she won’t “cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un who are rooting for Trump.”

The Sept 13 disclosure of the nuclear site showed Kim’s defiance of US-led efforts to eliminate his advancing nuclear program. It was North Korea’s first unveiling of a facility to produce weapons-grade uranium since the country showed one at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker in 2010. Hecker said the centrifuge hall shown in the recent North Korean photos was not the same one that he saw in 2010.