Seoul's defense chief has stressed that South Korea will not, under any circumstances, accept North Korea as a nuclear state... and will powerfully respond to its provocations.
Speaking at a forum in Singapore on Monday,... Song Young-moo said... the most urgent and grave security threat in the Asia-Pacific region is Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development.
He emphasized that Seoul will work towards a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,... through peaceful measures like dialogue and negotiation -- sanctions and pressure will only be the means of achieving this.
Mentioning North Korea could have been secretly trading with other nations using foreign vessels, Minister Song urged all nations in the region to abide by UN sanctions and up pressure on the regime.