It is thought that a possible launch from Sohae, on the west coast, could be a “strategic provocation”.
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Although commentators are anxious about an impending launch, 38 North claims that no signs of launch preparations have been detected so far. “The Chinese media and the state media were there”, Pak said.
Such preparations would include transferring equipment, filling oxidiser and fuel storage tanks, and political leaders arriving at the site to observe a launch.
Kim Jong-un is a great supporter of North Korea’s space program, and maintains that its intentions are peaceful.
However North Korea is banned from launching rockets under United Nations Security Council resolutions, because the technology could also be used in ballistic missiles.
The date the competition was held remains unconfirmed, South Korean outlet Newsis reported on Thursday, but was to commemorate North Korea’s “Victory Day”, or the Armistice Agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
At a rare press conference on Wednesday, North Korea’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, So Se Pyong, insisted that improving satellite capacity was “the right of sovereign countries”.
In an exchange on Twitter, Alejandro Cao – the Spanish-born Special Delegate of North Korea’s Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries – criticised evangelical Christians who he said “take advantage of drug addicts and homeless people and force them to become evangelists in exchange for a plate of soup”.
Any launch of a long-range rocket would nearly certainly be viewed by the worldwide community as a disguised ballistic missile test and result in the imposition of fresh sanctions significantly ramping up military tensions on the Korean peninsula. “Large-scale rice and fertilizer assistance has given North Korea an incentive to engage in high-level talks and reunions for divided families”.
Ji Jae Ryong informed reporters the Iranian atomic option earlier this month reached was a created through initiatives that were protracted, but that North Korea was different to Iran as it is “a nuclear weapons express each in brand as well as in fact”.
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While North Korea has not obtained the ability to equip a long-range missile with a nuclear warhead, the Kim Jong Un regime has made “considerable progress” in its efforts, South Korean officials have said. To date, there have been three DPRK nuclear tests and North Korea seems determined to push aggressively for means of delivering its warheads.
