Such an act would be a "serious provocation" and a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions banning the North from conducting ballistic missile tests, according to South Korean presidential spokesman Kim Min-seok.
North Korean officials on Monday vowed to move ahead with plans to launch what they say is a weather satellite into orbit. They gave no timeframe for such a launch, but there has been speculation it could happen October 10, the 70th anniversary of the North's ruling Worker's Party.
While North Korea insists the launch has peaceful purposes, the U.S. and its ally, South Korea, along with many other nations view such moves as disguised tests of the same technology used in ballistic missiles.
After repeated failed attempts, the North successfully placed a weather satellite into orbit in 2012 - a major technological achievement that brought another punishing round of international sanctions against the isolated, communist state.
A fresh rocket launch risks disrupting a period of warming relations between the two Koreas. The two sides in August exchanged artillery fire near their border, but later signed a landmark agreement to improve ties.
Under the deal, the two Koreas next month plan to resume a program of meetings meant to reconnect families separated for decades by their 1950s conflict. Leaders from both countries also plan to hold a series of meetings to discuss improving relations.
Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang are notoriously rocky. The two sides remain in a technical state of war since the Korean War ended in a truce instead of a formal peace treaty.
[voanews.com]
14/9/15
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A day after threatening long-range rocket launches, North Korea declared Tuesday that it has upgraded and restarted all of its atomic fuel plants so it can produce more - and more sophisticated - nuclear weapons...
ReplyDeleteNeither announcement was entirely unexpected, and outside analysts see the back-to-back warnings as part of a general North Korean playbook of using claimed improvements in its nuclear and missile programs to push for talks with the United States that could eventually provide the impoverished country with concessions and eased sanctions.
But the threats could significantly deepen a standoff between North Korea and the U.S. and its allies because they strike at Washington's fear that each North Korean rocket and nuclear test puts it another big step closer to its stated goal of an arsenal of nuclear-tipped long-range missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland.......AP.......ctvnews.ca