Seoul monitoring Pyongyang with 'sense of tension,' stresses need for dialogue

People watch a TV at Seoul Railway Station, Jan. 20, showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch broadcast during a news program. AP-Yonhap

The government emphasized Thursday that dialogue and diplomacy are the only key to building peace on the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea's thinly veiled threat to scrap a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear weapons and long-range missile tests.

The North held a high-profile politburo meeting of the ruling Workers' Party the previous day and decided to consider restarting "all temporally-suspended" activities to brace for a "long-term confrontation" with the United States, according to Pyongyang's state media.

"The government is closely monitoring the North's latest moves with a sense of tension," the Ministry of Unification that handles inter-Korean affairs said in a statement. "We will thoroughly prepare for possible deterioration of the situation while closely coordinating with other countries to keep the situation on the Korean Peninsula under stable control," it added.

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The ministry stressed, "We believe dialogue and diplomacy are the only solution to head to the future of peace."

Regional tensions have escalated in recent weeks, especially after the North conducted four sets of ballistic missile launches, including two tests of what it claims was a hypersonic missile, this month.

The Joe Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Pyongyang last week and is pushing for additional U.N. Security Council sanctions. A closed-door council session on the matter is slated for Thursday (local time). (Yonhap)

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