On Tuesday, South Korea said that they predict North Korea would be amenable to negotiations with the United States next year as part of its optimistic outlook for the coming year despite the country preparing to create its own specialized military team that would counter nuclear threats from their Northern neighbor.
Last Friday, the UN Security Council adapted new and tougher sanctions against the small nation for its latest nuclear missile test which the North immediately called as an economic blockade and an act of war.
In their report on Tuesday, the South Korean Unification Ministry said, "North Korea will seek negotiation with United States, while continuing to pursue its effort to be recognized as a de facto nuclear-possessing country." Despite this statement, the ministry did not elaborate further on why they reached this conclusion.
With regards to its plans to create a special sector that would tackle nuclear threats from the North, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said that they would be assigning four units that would tackle North Korea policy that would act as a deterrent and the country's first response against North Korea's nuclear and missile threat.
North Korea has been defying every UN sanction imposed in the country and after the imposition of the newest UN snction, KCNA reported that the North Korean government believes the US was terrified by its nuclear force and was getting "more and more frenzied in the moves to impose the harshest-ever sanctions and pressure on our country."
However, the US had clearly stressed that they are still looking for a diplomatic solution to the tensions despite US President Donald Trump saying that talks would be useless and Pyongyang should commit into giving up its nuclear weapons before any negotiations could take place.
The latest sanctions was supported by North Korea's only ally China and Russia, which aims to limit North Korea's access to refined petroleum and crude oil, as well as limiting its earnings from its overseas workings. China had stressed, through Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, that the country still calls for all countries to ease tensions and discuss it diplomatically.
Meanwhile, the Unification Ministry also added in its 2018 forecast that North Korea would be able to find loopholes that would reduce the effects of the latest sanctions in the country.
It said, "countermeasures will be orchestrated to deal with the ffects, including cuts in trade volume and foreign currency inflow, lack of supplies, and reduced production in each part of the economy."
