Skorea Threatens North With 'Harsher' Sanctions

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Wednesday that North Korea will only face "harsher" international sanctions if it does not abandon its nuclear weapon ambitions.



Park's threat came as she attended a National Unification Advisory Council event in Seoul.



"International sanctions on North Korea will become harsher as long as it [North Korea] does not give up its nuclear program," the president warned in a speech.



Pyongyang has repeatedly ignored United Nations-led resolutions and punishments, having conducted three known nuclear tests in recent years and a series of banned ballistic missile launches.



The North openly pursues a military-first policy in an effort to keep perceived enemies such as the United States and South Korea at bay.



But Park cautioned that such a strategy "could eventually heighten the instability of the North Korean regime".



Also Wednesday, a state-run South Korean think tank revealed its tally of executions in the North since 2000, which reached close to 1,400 as of last year.



The Korea Institute for National Unification's white paper conceded that the true figure could be considerably greater, and that capital punishment was handed down in the authoritarian state for a "wide range" of crimes -- including watching smuggled South Korean DVDs.



Pyongyang has been defiant in the face of such claims, particularly as a new United Nations office for human rights opened in Seoul last month on the recommendation of a U.N. Commission of Inquiry report, which accused North Korea of committing "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights". - Seoul-t'ukpyolsi