North Korea started dropping these propaganda leaflets in response to South Korea’s resumption of anti-Pyongyang broadcasts along the heavily fortified border.
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Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday that North Korea may be preparing a ballistic missile test from a base on its east coast in addition to the rocket launch.
A number of U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibit North Korea from conducting launches that use ballistic missile technology. Although Pyongyang has described its satellite program as peaceful, it relies on long-rang missile technology that is prohibited under previous UNSC resolutions against the country.
Wu returned home earlier in the day after a three-day visit to North Korea amid the North’s preparations to launch a long-range rocket this month, following its latest nuclear test on January 6.
Upon his arrival in Beijing, Wu told reporters that he “said what had to be said, and did what was supposed to be done”, referring to recent North Korea announcements.
Chang wondered if the North Koreans and Iranians could be so proud of successfully testing such a missile that they dropped all pretense of a “satellite launch”, and whether “a bold statement of that sort might even get the no-pulse John Kerry to do something about North Korea’s troublesome weapons programs”.
Russia urges North not to escalate tensions Meanwhile in Moscow, Russia urged North Korea to avoid escalating tensions with an announced rocket launch, expressing “grave concern” over the plan.
“This meeting served as a midterm review ahead of the Workers’ Party congress in May, which is symbolic of the start of the Kim Jong-un era”, Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea studies professor at Korea University, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday.
South Koreans (above) watch file footage of a North Korean missile launch on a television screen at an electronics retail store in Seoul, South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un holds binoculars as he guides a live-firing exercise in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on July 15.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned what he called a “serious provocation”, while his defence minister issued an order to “destroy” the rocket with surface-to-air missiles if it threatened to fall on Japanese territory.
North Korea informed worldwide organizations on Tuesday that it will launch an Earth observation satellite on a rocket between February 8 and February 25 and between 7 a.m. and noon Pyongyang time.
Japan has pledged to shoot down any missile that encroaches on its territory.
North Korea, an autocracy run by the same family since 1948, is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles, but it closely guards details about its nuclear and missile programs.
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United Nations sanctions against North Korea prohibit it from carrying out any nuclear or ballistic missile tests.
