Situation 'graver than ever' on Korean peninsula: Seoul

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se urged his country Tuesday to persevere with sanctions aimed at forcing North Korea to denuclearize, amid recent calls from opposition lawmakers to engage Pyongyang in dialogue.

Seoul has refused numerous offers of talks from the North since May, and Yun warned during a parliamentary interpellation session that it was vital to keep pushing Pyongyang through punitive measures.

"Things have become graver than ever," Yun was quoted by local news agency Yonhap as saying in reference to the situation on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's fourth ever nuclear test in January -- after which the United Nations Security Council imposed its toughest ever sanctions on the authoritarian state.

Yun added that South Korea should focus on sanctions so that the peninsula can be free from nukes "as quickly as possible".

But also Tuesday, North Korea accused the United States of being led by "nuclear maniacs," as Pyongyang's state-run KCNA news agency lamented the use of American B-52 bombers in nearby drills involving Japan last month.

The North has long claimed that American aggression in the region is responsible for the persistence of tensions even decades after the 1950-53 Korean War.

Nearly 30,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the conflict, which ended in a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper insisted that coal production and power generation expanded 140 and 120 percent respectively last month under the influence of leader Kim Jong-un's economic revival strategy -- involving a loyalty campaign aimed at working harder in the face of sanctions.