South Korean President Park Geun-hye will defend her hardline response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch in an address to the National Assembly in Seoul Tuesday.
Following North Korea’s recent moves, Park has abandoned virtually any hope of negotiating with the Kim Jong Un government and has joined with allies Washington and Tokyo to step up efforts to coerce Pyongyang to capitulate.
Sunday the Park administration justified closing the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea last week, saying that 70 percent of the income generated at the complex was used to finance the North’s nuclear program.
The United Nations has banned North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology and has imposed four rounds of increasingly stronger sanctions since 2006.