This week, the Senate will take action to impose new sanctions on North Korea, not only for its nuclear and missile programs, but also for its unparalleled human rights abuses and its cyber-attacks on US companies.
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“The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this launch”, Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Dario Ramírez Carreño, president of the council this month, told reporters.
The U.S. official said the United States had told China that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, was “a defensive system, designed specifically to counter the threat from North Korea” and not aimed at China.
Sunday’s launch, which North Korea had said last week it would carry out, was hailed by state media as a “fascinating vapour… trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February on the threshold of the Day of the Shining Star”.
The North is already subject to numerous United Nations sanctions over previous rocket launches and 3 nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the North’s four nuclear tests and three long-range rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father in late 2011.
The US is fully committed to the security of the region, and will “defend ourselves and our allies and respond to North Korean provocations”, she said.
“The goal of the formal consultations is to bilaterally explore the feasibility of THAAD deploying to and operating on the Korean peninsula at the earliest possible date”, Peter Cook, spokesman for the US Department of Defence, said.
The THAAD system fires missiles created to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles while they are still just outside of the atmosphere or they come to enter.
Critics of the rocket programme say it is being used to test technology for a long-range missile.
“Seven years of underfunding for US missile defense have given our adversaries uncontested opportunity to advance their capabilities”.
Washington and Beijing have appeared divided over how to respond to North Korea, with the United States urging tougher sanctions and China stressing the need for dialogue.
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CBS reported that signals from the satellite had also yet to be detected. North Korea insisted a past satellite transmitted the “Song of General Kim Il Sung” and “Song of General Kim Jong Il”, but that was never confirmed.
