“While North Korea has claimed it as a satellite launch, the real objective is widely believed to be a long-range missile test”, he said.
Advertisement
The government also said it will expand its psychological warfare of anti-North Korean loudspeaker broadcasts, a tactic that irritates North Korea.
This launch prompted the United Nations to call an emergency meeting to discuss the security of the world.
Talking about the recent satellite launch by North Korea, the press secretary said that this step “further destabilizes the situation on the Korean Peninsula”.
Members also recalled that they have previously expressed their determination to take further significant measures in the event of another DPRK launch.
The United States would deploy “as soon as possible” their THAAD missile system in South Korea on Saturday after a rocket launch by North Korea, said Monday a spokesman for the Pentagon. They said that, in the coming days and weeks, Beijing and Washington would continue bilateral discussions on the outline of a new resolution to expand existing United Nations sanctions on North Korea. The liftoff was tracked individually by the US Strategic Command and by their counterparts in Japan and South Korea.
South Korea on Sunday strongly denounced North Korea’s launch, describing it as an “extreme provocative act” that runs counter to the worldwide community’s wish for peace, according to a statement issued by the South Korean presidential office.
The DPRK is banned under UN Security Council resolutions from testing a rocket by use of ballistic missile technology and from conducting a nuclear test.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one senior Western diplomat said he hoped the council would be able to vote on a new sanctions resolution this month.
Israel said Monday that it views North Korea’s repeated provocations with profound concern, joining the chorus of global criticism following Pyongyang’s launching of a long-range rocket on Sunday.
Advertisement
The North insists its space programme is purely scientific in nature but the US, South Korea and even Pyongyang’s ally China say the rocket launches are aimed at developing inter-continental ballistic missiles.
