On Thursday, hours after the UN’s decision, the country fired six short-range projectiles into the sea off its east coast, South Korean officials said.
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South Korea and the United States will launch formal talks on Friday about the deployment in the South Korean territory of a sophisticated US missile defense system, Seoul’s defense ministry said.
The news agency also confirmed the test-fire of a new multiple launch rocket system the previous day.
Just before the United Nations sanctions were unanimously adopted, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill that would establish a centre tasked with collecting, archiving and publishing information about human rights in North Korea.
Apart from its nuclear weapons, North Korea’s multiple-rocket launchers and artillery pieces are its most-feared weapons in the South. The North is estimated to have 13,000 of them clustered on the inter-Korean border, 28 miles north of Seoul.
While the USA maintains that any deployment of THAAD in South Korea would be exclusively to protect its forces there and their South Korean allies, some see it as further militarization of the peninsula and an escalation of the American presence there.
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense and US forces stationed in this country formed a working group Friday to discuss deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD.
China and Russian Federation oppose the deployment of THAAD, which has powerful radar capable of penetrating deep into their countries, but South Korea and the United States have said it is needed in response to the heightened missile threat from the North.
Always ragged relations between North Korea and its rivals Seoul and Washington have worsened following North Korea’s nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket test last month that outsiders say was a test of banned ballistic missile technology. The north launched a long-range rocket last month carrying what it has called a satellite.
North Korea’s National Defence Commission said the North Korean army and people would “realise the greatest desire of the Korean nation through a sacred war of justice for reunification”, in response to any attack by US and South Korean forces.
Kim criticized South Korean President Park Geun-hye in his first direct published mention of her by name for acting “in league with the USA scoundrels”, adding, “her hysteria will precipitate only her ruin in the long run”, KCNA said.
But China seems no less concerned about the defense system now than before.
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“If a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, the US will be held accountable for igniting the war by mobilizing their massive strategic means and war hardware here, regardless of who mounted a preemptive attack”, the statement read. The North makes progress with each new nuclear test but many experts say its arsenal may consist only of still-crude nuclear bombs.
