Moon convenes NSC meeting to curb additional provocations by N. Korea

SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in convened a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on Sunday to monitor North Korea and review South Korea's countermeasures for potential provocations by the communist country, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.

The plenary NSC meeting was held in the evening for more than two hours and brought together Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, the chiefs of the unification, defense, and home ministries as well as the presidential chief of staff, Moon's chief security advisor and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the presidential office.

Moon ordered the officials to "proactively look for countermeasures to curb North Korea's additional provocations," drawing on the security tensions sparked by North Korea's recent provocations and statements by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, according to the presidential office.

The president also instructed them to "seek all the possible diplomatic measures together with the international community" toward North Korea while also calling for the maintenance of strong military deterrence based on the South Korea-U.S. joint defense posture.

The meeting came as a war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim further escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly last week, Trump threatened to "totally destroy" the North Korean regime if the U.S. was forced to defend itself or its allies against a North Korean attack.

The North Korean leader said Trump would "pay dearly" and threatened to take the highest-level action in response. North Korean leader Ri Yong-ho later said the highest-level action could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific.

In his U.N. address on Thursday, Ri again lambasted Trump as a "mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complaisance" and threatened to take "merciless preventive action" if the U.S. tries to attack his country or the country's leader.

pbr@yna.co.kr
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