13 September, 2017
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced on Thursday Beijing's support for punitive action against North Korea for its recent ballistic missile tests over Japan.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday of a global catastrophe unless a diplomatic solution is reached over North Korea, but rejected U.S. calls for more sanctions as "useless", widening a split among major powers over how to rein in Pyongyang.
Pointing to the history of Washington's failures to live up to its commitments, the analyst said North Korea halted its nuclear program for over a decade back in the 1990s when the United States agreed to scale back its hostility, military exercises and militarization of South Korea, but America violated the agreement.
NATO ambassadors said after talks in Brussels on Wednesday that "it is now imperative that all nations implement more thoroughly and transparently existing U.N. sanctions" against the North.
On the busy streets of Seoul on Friday, residents were bracing for Foundation Day: one of the most important public holidays in neighbouring North Korea and one that is often marked with a show of military force.
China's state news agency said Xi expressed China's adamant position about "resolving the nuclear issue through talks".
An official at the Mexican foreign ministry noted, however, that President Enrique Pena Nieto's government was not breaking diplomatic ties with North Korea.
After speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping on the phone on Wednesday, Trump reaffirmed the position that he would use other means of pressure against Pyongyang rather than military actions. "The president will consider that at the appropriate time once he gives the United Nations time to act", Mnuchin told reporters on a flight back to Washington from North Dakota, where Trump gave a speech on tax reform. For example, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons between 1994 and 1996 - a move that led many experts to suggest that Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 would not have happened had Ukraine retained its nuclear threat.
But he said he believed North Korea's leadership feared that any freeze of its nuclear program would be followed by what amounted to "an invitation to the cemetery".
The 13-page draft condemns North Korea's September 2 hydrogen bomb test and its "flagrant disregard" of numerous previous Security Council resolutions that prohibit Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile activities.
MAJOR GARRETT, CBS NEWS: Mr. President, on the question of North Korea, the country feels that a crisis is coming. "But we will not be putting up with what's happening in North Korea", Trump told reporters, although he offered no specifics.
More than 30 people were injured when around 8,000 South Korean police broke up a blockade of about 300 villagers and civic groups opposed to the THAAD system deployment on Thursday, fire officials said.
"We made clear that we have the ability to defend ourselves and our allies, South Korea and Japan, from any attack", Mattis said of the USA military.
Celebrating its founding anniversary, a front-page editorial of the Saturday edition of North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun said the country should make "more high-tech Juche weapons to continuously bring about big historical events such as a miraculous victory of July 28.".
North Korea greeted the proposal with a threat.
