SOUTH Korea’s president has warned rival North Korea faces collapse if it doesn’t abandon its nuclear bomb program in an unusually strong broadside.

It will almost certainly infuriate Pyongyang-based dictator Kim Jong-un.

President Park Geun-hye, in a nationally televised parliamentary address, said South Korea will take unspecified “stronger and more effective” measures in response to Pyongyang’s recent missile and nuclear tests.

This was to make North Korea realise its nuclear ambitions will result only in speeding up of its “regime collapse”, she said.

Park, who was defending her decision to shut down a jointly run factory park in North Korea in response to the North’s recent long-range test of banned ballistic missile technology.

North Korea Military Takes Control of Kaesong After South Korea suspended operations at the Kaesong Industrial Park on Wednesday, North Korea said it was putting its armed forces in control of the jointly-run complex located on the border of two countries. Photo: Getty Images

North Korea last month also conducted a fourth nuclear test.

Both developments put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear armed missile that could reach the US mainland.

BRUISED EGOS

It is highly unusual for a top South Korean official to publicly touch upon such a government collapse in North Korea because of worries about how sensitive North Korea is to talk of its authoritarian government losing power.

Pyongyang has long accused Washington and Seoul of agitating for its collapse.

Park’s speech contained harsh language, describing North Korea as “merciless” and under an “extreme reign of terror” following recent purges of top officials that outside analysts say were aimed at bolstering leader Kim Jong Un’s grip on power.

Park’s comments are certain to anger North Korea as they were made as the country marks the birthday of late dictator Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un.

MILITARY ESCALATION

Following Pyongyang’s rocket launch, Seoul announced it will begin talks with Washington on deploying a sophisticated US missile defence system in South Korea.

It also stated the long-term allies’ upcoming springtime military drills will be the biggest ever.

The US has declared its plans to send four of its most advanced F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea in a show of force, according to Seoul media reports.

The deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defence system is drawing oppositions not only from North Korea but also China and Russia.

Critics say placing the system in South Korea could help the US track missiles in other countries.

After meeting with South Korean officials in Seoul, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui said he relayed Beijing’s opposition to the move.

“China showed its stance against (the deployment),” he said.

UNITY CALL

South Korea’s President called for support for her government amid a divide in South Korea about its tough stance towards North Korea.

“Aiming the point of a sword back at us and splitting us up are things that must not take place,” she said.

South Korea’s main liberal opposition party has criticised the government’s decision to suspend operations at the shared Kaesong economic facility, saying the measure will hurt only South Korean businessmen and deepen tensions with North Korea.

Without elaborating, Park said the North has diverted much of Seoul’s payments to North Korean workers at the factory park to the Pyongyang leadership.

This money may then have been channelled towards nuclear warhead and missile development.

She also said the South has sent more than $3 billion in government and civilian aid to the North since mid-1990s.

Park said South Korea must not provide few-strings-attached large-scale aid to North Korea “like in the past.”

MONEY GAMES

Seoul officials said North Korea was able to divert the Kaesong payments because the workers there were not paid directly. Instead, US dollars were paid to the North Korean government, which siphoned off most of the money and paid only what it wanted to the employees in North Korean currency and store vouchers, according to a statement from Seoul’s’ Unification Ministry on Sunday.

The ministry did not detail how it arrived at that conclusion. North Korea has previously dismissed such views.

In response to Seoul’s Kaesong shutdown decision, Pyongyang last week expelled all South Korean workers from the factory park, put its military in charge of the area, and cut off key communication hotlines between the Koreas