The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is seeking to adopt a press statement to condemn North Korea’s latest launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), officials said Wednesday following an emergency meeting on the issue.
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“He appreciated the test-fire as the greatest success and victory”, KCNA said.
Kim reportedly declared the launch “the greatest success”, putting the country in the “front rank” of nuclear military powers.
Neither KRT nor KCNA gave the date of the launch.
South Korea said Thursday that surviving South Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japan’s military in World War II will be eligible to receive around 100 million won (about $90,000) each from a foundation that will be funded by the Japanese government.
The message for the Army was that “we’d better be prepared should North Korea do something stupid”, Brown said.
North Korea has conducted a spate of military technology tests this year, including a fourth nuclear test in January and numerous ballistic missile launches, in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions that were tightened in March.
“North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are not imaginary threats any longer, but they’re now becoming real threats”, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said of the launch.
Japan’s military on Thursday, August 25, began 4 days of live-fire drills near Mount Fuji, an annual exercise that comes this year the day after North Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
Kim is also seen jubilantly celebrating with military aides in photographs carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
The news agency said the test was aimed at evaluating the stability of the underwater launching system, the flight features of the solid-fuel missile, the reliability of the control and guidance system, and the accuracy of the warhead in hitting targets after it re-enters the atmosphere.
North Korea already has land-based missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan, including US military bases in those countries.
Japan said the missile reached its air defence identification zone – a first for a North Korean missile.
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday at the request of the United States and Japan to discuss the launch.
Deputy Russian UN Ambassador Petr Iliichev said the United States would circulate a draft press statement.
Missiles of such capability also could strike parts of Japan, including US military bases on the island of Okinawa, considering the operational range of North Korea’s Sinpo-class submarines, said analyst Kim Dong-yub at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.
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China, however, is known to have not brought up the USA -made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system this time, while making clear its opposition to the North’s SLBM launch, a diplomatic source said, asking not to be named.
