Trump, Moon agree North Korea poses 'growing direct threat'

US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have agreed that North Korea 'poses a grave and growing direct threat,' in a phone call one day after the UN Security Council backed fresh sanctions on the North.

File image

File image Source: AAP

"The two leaders affirmed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, South Korea, and Japan, as well as to most countries around the world," the White House said of the call, in which the pair welcomed the sweeping sanctions. 

"The leaders committed to fully implement all relevant resolutions and to urge the international community to do so as well."
It comes as the South's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha had a brief encounter with her Northern counterpart Ri Yong-ho ahead of an ASEAN Regional Forum dinner on Sunday, Yonhap said.

Kang urged Ri to accept Seoul's offers of military talks to lower tensions on the divided peninsula, and for discussions on a new round of reunions for divided families.

But Ri retorted: "Given the current situation in which the South collaborates with the US to heap pressure on the North, such proposals lacked sincerity," the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

The encounter came a day after the UN Security Council passed sweeping sanctions on the North over its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which sparked global alarm.

The growing threat from the nuclear-armed North dominated the annual forum, which came days after the North's second ICBM test.

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Published 7 August 2017 11:54am
Updated 7 August 2017 12:30pm
Source: AFP


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