Global Security Newswire

South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday said her administration would never recognize North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation, the Associated Press reported.

In an address to the U.S. Congress, the new South Korean president said she was prepared to supply the impoverished North with humanitarian assistance without tying it directly to the state of inter-Korean relations.

Park criticized Pyongyang for its focus on nuclear weapons development and provocations. "It's time to put an end to this vicious circle," Reuters quoted her as saying.

The North in recent months has carried out a spate of provocations including its third atomic test, withdrawing from nonaggression pacts with Seoul, and threatening to launch nuclear missiles at the United States and South Korea. Pyongyang's aggressive behavior is seen by foreign analysts as aimed at attracting foreign attention and winning new concessions in any new round of negotiations.

"You may rest assured: No North Korean provocation will succeed," Park promised.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department on Wednesday applauded China's decision to end banking ties with a North Korean financial entity that is under U.S. sanctions, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The state-managed Bank of China declared this week it would no longer handle transactions by the Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea, which is considered a principal source of funding for Pyongyang WMD activities.

"We welcome steps that increase the sanctions," department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said to reporters.