North Korea’s mobile missile launcher, carrying a ballistic missile, has been seen moving near the east coast and activity has also been seen at a long-range rocket launch pad on the west coast, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Thursday (Feb 4). The warnings came a day after the North announced a February 8-25 window for the launch, ostensibly aimed at putting an Earth observation satellite into orbit.
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It has long sought to have an inter-continental missile that can carry a nuclear bomb, and the USA has called the regime’s long-range rocket launches tests of ballistic missile technology banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The message was personally conveyed by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov to North Korea’s ambassador to Russia, Kim Jong-un, it said.
Secretary of State John Kerry sparred with his Chinese counterpart on the issue in Beijing last week, and discussions are continuing among U.N. Security Council members on how to respond to the actions by North Korea, which already faces sanctions under multiple resolutions imposed since 2006 when the North conducted its first nuclear test.
Still in defiance of sanctions, North Korea has repeatedly pledged to launch a series of satellites as part of its space development program.
North Korea’s plan to launch a satellite will give the outside world one useful outcome: a fresh opportunity to assess the secretive state’s potential missile threat.
China’s top nuclear diplomat arrived in the North Korean capital Pyongyang on Tuesday to talk about restarting the talks.
According to the coordinates the North provided to worldwide agencies, its multi-stage rocket, if it is fired from the northwestern Dongchang-ri launch site, will initially fly over the West Sea, drop the first stage there, and pass over the East China Sea before shedding the second stage in the Philippine Sea.
The launch announcement follows an outpouring of global condemnation over the North’s fourth nuclear test on January 6.
“We are extremely concerned about this”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a briefing on Wednesday. North Korea said last month it wasn’t interested in aggravating tensions and that it would suspend nuclear testing if the US stopped joint military drills with South Korea, a proposal quickly dismissed by USA officials. “Wu arrived in Pyongyang, and just a few hours later, North Korea’s plans to launch a rocket were released”. The government hopes that Japan, the United States and South Korea will act in concert and strengthen ties to contain North Korea.
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Fleitz said that the Japanese have legitimate concerns about their safety, given the past waywardness of some North Korean rockets, to which North Korea has responded in the past. Two of the sanctioned Iranians were described as “critical” to the booster program, and both have traveled to Pyongyang for contract negotiations.
