President Barack Obama spoke to two key Asian allies late Monday, garnering support for strong action against North Korea in response to recent nuclear and missile tests.
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The Foreign Secretary, who was warned that North Korea’s actions present a “threat to regional and global security”, said economic sanctions would require the agreement of the UN Security Council.
The 15-member Security Council described yesterday’s launch as an “intolerable provocation” and said it planned to implement fresh sanctions on the rogue state.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the rocket launch “totally intolerable”, and expressed an intention to impose unilateral sanctions as soon as possible.
Mr Swire added: “This test, even if characterised as a space launch vehicle or launch of a satellite, clearly contributes to North Korea’s development of nuclear weapon delivery systems”.
But the official response from Beijing, North Korea’s only ally, was muted.
The South fired the shots and broadcast loudspeaker messages at the Northern vessel after it crossed a maritime boundary known as the Northern Limit Line, an official from the South’s defense ministry said on condition of anonymity.
South Korea confirmed on Tuesday that the three-stage rocket successfully separated before the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite reached orbit.
Critics of the rocket program say it is being used to test technology for a long-range missile.
North Korea this weekend launched a satellite into space again, in violation of worldwide sanctions.
Cook emphasized that the THAAD system, should it be deployed to the Korean Peninsula, would be “focused exclusively on North Korea”.
North Korea has apparently launched a satellite to orbit, in a move that the United States and other nations quickly condemned as an attempt to further develop a prohibited long-range missile capability.
US Marine Corps general Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, will be in Hawaii, home to US Pacific Command, for the meeting, which was scheduled before the North Korea launch and has been widely criticized around the world.
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South Korean and US military officials said Sunday that they had agreed to begin negotiations for the “earliest possible” deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system that uses ground-based launchers to shoot down missiles.
