The council is meeting about North Korea’s successful launch of a long-range missile.
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“The goal of the formal consultations is to bilaterally explore the feasibility of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) deploying to and operating on the Korean Peninsula at the earliest possible date”, Peter Cook, spokesman for the Department of Defense, said at a press briefing.
North Korea, through its state-run media, claimed the rocket launch was a “peaceful” attempt to put a satellite into orbit. The tests prompted UN Security Council members to impose sanctions against the country, which is already under sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes.
U.S. officials and missile defense experts have said North Korea’s latest rocket launch could trigger a buildup of United States missile defense systems in Asia.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye and US President Barack Obama agreed various sanctions outside the United Nations are needed to punish North Korea.
Answering a question on whether China expressed concerns over the THAAD system, Cook said: “I’m not aware of any direct communication we’ve received from the Chinese here at the Department of Defense”.
The U.S. Strategic Command said it had detected a missile entering space, and South Korea’s military said the rocket had put an object into orbit.
North Korea was previously planning to launch the satellite between 8 and 25 February, but following an order by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) advanced the launch.
South Korea also recently released the first images of debris believed to be from the long-range rocket fired Sunday.
“This launch, coupled with the recent nuclear test, indicates further advances in the technology necessary to improving North Korea’s capability to strike the continental United States, Alaska or Hawaii”, Todorov said.
The launch came weeks after Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test.
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.
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The Foreign Office’s Asia minister, Hugo Swire, said in a statement that he called in the North’s Amb.
