Also of interest: Iranian media report that Iran will launch a Simorgh rocket, similar to North Korea’s Unha, during festivities to mark the Iranian revolution, scheduled to run through February 11.
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Chinese envoy Wu Dawei returned from North Korea on Thursday, but without a guarantee Pyongyang would cease further provocations.
Although the two sides agreed to mount an “accelerated effort” to try to resolve their differences on a new resolution, Kerry acknowledged they had not agreed on the “parameters of exactly what it would do or say”.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that the North was pushing ahead with the launch plans at its west coast Tongchang-ri launch site. North Korea booted out global inspectors in 2009, and independent assessments by outside experts since then have been spotty.
“For this reason, starting with the last launch after Japan threatened to shoot down its missiles, North Korea has used a trajectory that did not go over Japan”.
China is North Korea’s sole main ally though China disapproves of its nuclear program.
The defense ministry concluded in its 2015 white paper that if North Korea develops long-range ballistic missiles using technologies tested in the launches, “the missiles could have ranges that potentially reach the central, western and other areas of the US mainland”.
The UN has passed a series of resolutions banning North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies.
The planned tests brought forth a chorus of complaints from countries already highly agitated over North Korea’s January 6 test. But Seoul and Washington view the North’s move as cover for ballistic missile tests.
Fleitz said that the Japanese have legitimate concerns about their safety, given the past waywardness of some North Korean rockets, to which North Korea has responded in the past.
“If we put a nuclear warhead atop a rocket, it can fly to the U.S. That’s why we are confident”, Ri was quoted as saying during a lecture for North Korean senior officials in early 2012.
China, North Korea’s diplomatic backer and economic lifeline, has expressed displeasure over the North’s nuclear and missile programs, but resisted calls for tougher new sanctions against North Korea following the latest nuclear test.
The only solution, Park argued, was to impose sanctions harsh enough “to make it realise that it will not survive unless it gives up its nuclear programme”.
Those are exactly the sort of regime-destabilizing steps that China fears, and Beijing, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council appears to be pushing back.
Mr Abe said he would work with other countries to “strongly demand” North Korea stops its missile launch. Seoul officials estimated the first stage of the rocket would fall off the west coast of South Korea, more debris would land near the South’s Jeju Island, and the second stage would land off the Philippines’ east coast.
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His words seemed to indicate that his talks with North Korean officials may not have yielded much.
