В Сеул сегодня прилетел заместитель госсекретаря США Antony Blinken. Американец и южнокорейцы будут решать, какие ввести санкции против Северной Кореи, чтобы пожестче ударить по Пхеньяну.


U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit South Korea, Tuesday, to discuss countermeasures to North Korea's latest nuclear test.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that Blinken will meet with Seoul's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam during his two-day visit here.

Blinken is also planning to pay a courtesy call on President Park Geun-hye.

His visit comes about two weeks after Pyongyang's defiant claim that it successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb during its fourth nuclear test, raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula as well as in the international community.

"Based on the results of the previous discussions between Seoul and Washington, the two nations will look at the visit of Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken as an opportunity to further strengthen policy coordination in response to the North's nuclear test," a ministry official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.

Blinken and South Korean officials are expected to discuss ways of swiftly imposing harsher sanctions on the authoritarian state, while the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) works on a resolution about the sanctions.

They are also expected to once again call on China as a veto-holding permanent member of the UNSC to join their efforts.

Beijing, traditionally an ally of the North, is largely seen as having held a lukewarm stance on the North's nuclear development, with speculation abounding that China is seeking to water down the U.N.-led sanctions in a familiar pattern following Pyongyang's previous nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Ahead of his visit to Seoul, Blinken attended a tripartite meeting with Lim and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki in Tokyo, Saturday, where the three agreed to push for a "strong and comprehensive" response to the North's latest nuclear test, also calling on China to join hands with them.

Since the North's Jan. 6 test, South Korea and the U.S. have been working closely on countermeasures together through various channels.

President Park and President Barack Obama held a 20-minute phone conversation on Jan. 7, at which the two leaders vowed to impose strong sanctions against the isolated state. Minister Yun also had a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the same day.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. sent a B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam to South Korea in a show of force to the North. The B-52 bomber is capable of destroying North Korea's underground facilities, including its nuclear test sites.

The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan also met in Seoul on Jan. 13.

In their respective efforts to persuade China to put pressure on North Korea, Seoul's chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kook met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing on Jan. 14, while Blinken is planning to visit China on Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will also fly to Beijing on Jan. 27, according to the U.S. State Department.