“We hope they rethink that idea”.
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North Korea’s top five organizations have adopted a congratulatory statement addressed to the leader Kim Jong-un ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. “But if they don’t it’s very clear there will be strong actions taken by the global community”, US Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken told reporters after talks with South Korean officials. South Korean defence officials have also seen no indication of an imminent launch.
North Korea is widely expected to mark its anniversary with a variety of celebratory events, rather than a provocative act, such as a long-range rocket launch, according to the Unification Ministry.
Philippine Azkals coach Thomas Dooley lauded his team’s performance after holding North Korea to a goalless draw in their World Cup Qualifying match at Kim Il-Sung Stadium on Thursday here.
Lost in concerns of North Korea increasing its military belligerence are reports that North Korean people are being slightly more vocal in their disapproval of the lavish celebration.
“There is no evidence to support a long-range rocket launch on October 10”, Joel Wit, an expert at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said on Twitter on Monday.
Much analysis in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul points to North Korea eventually embarking on a missile launch and a fourth nuclear test. And a launch soon is not out of the question, since Pyongyang could be making preparations somewhere outside the view of satellites, a Japanese government source explained.
North Korea claims it is within its sovereign rights to put a satellite into orbit for scientific purposes.
Satellite images taken September 17 of the North’s Sohae satellite launching station showed no launch preparations or significant activities at related facilities, including fuel and oxidizer storage buildings, that would be typical if a launch were looming, according to 38 North. The North, criticizing President Park Geun-hye’s address to the United Nations General Assembly last month, threatened that the reunion plan could be on “thin ice”. If Pyongyang conducts a new long-range rocket launch in the not-too-distant future, it would likely involve the existing Unha-3 rocket, he said.
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It announced the planned launch 11 days beforehand and notified neighbouring countries including Japan of the intended flight path.
