Threats from North Korea - A Week in Review (June 22, 2013)

And now, the week in review of what's what at the Korean peninsula...

June 17, 2013

- President Park Geun-hye has expressed deep skepticism about North Korea's peace offensive, saying having talks for the sake of having talks will only give Pyongyang more time to upgrade its nuclear weapons. This remark was came during a 20-minute phone talk with US President Obama.

- The Hanul nuclear reactor number 5 in Gyeongsang Province resumed operations just before 9PM Sunday, local time.

- The White House says it's open for high-level talks proposed by North Korea but only if Pyongyang lives up to its UN obligations to dismantle its nuclear development. In its proposal, Pyongyang indicated a willingness to discuss the issue of denuclearization on the peninsula.

June 18, 2013

- Pyongyang's senior nuclear negotiator has arrived in Beijing to hold a strategic dialogue with Chinese official

- The foreign ministry told the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee today that it will improve its procedural manual for dealing with North Korean defectors overseas.

- South Korean president Park Geun-Hye and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met up where she discussed ways to stimulate entrepreneurship and venture firms in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

June 19, 2013

- In Beijing, where North Korea's top nuclear envoy held high-level, strategic talks with Chinese officials, China's foreign ministry announced that North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-Gwan and his Chinese counterpart Zhang Yesui exchanged views of bilateral relations as well as the current state of the Korean peninsula

- Seoul's top nuclear envoy, Cho Tae-Yong, is in Washington for a trilateral meeting with his US and Japanese counterparts.

June 20, 2013

- Seoul's top nuclear envoy, Cho Tae-Yong, laid out tougher conditions for any talks with North Korea, saying that "stronger requirements should be imposed (on North Korean) than the Feb. 29 agreement between North Korea and United States."

- The trilateral talks in Washington coincided between North Korea's chief nuclear envoy and senior Chinese officials in Beijing, with Chinese media reporting that Kim reasserted Pyongyang's willingness to resolve its nuclear issues through dialogue.

- South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin will meet with visiting US Secretary of the Navy to discuss ways to toughen their military partnership and put forth coordinated efforts to handle any kind of threat North Korea's throwing at.

June 21, 2013

- South Korea's top nuclear envoy Cho Tae-Yong arrived in Beijing and met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei to discuss North Korea's nuclear program.

- The Korean government has announced plans to help domestic businesses suffering due to the recent sanctions on Iran.