North Korea said Tuesday it has “successfully” tested a powerful new rocket engine and ordered preparations to launch a satellite, signaling it is determined to advance its missile program despite threats of new sanctions.
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Leader Kim Jong Un was quoted as ordering officials to get ready for a satellite launch as soon as possible.
A Chinese company under investigation by local police may have aided North Korea’s nuclear programme, think tanks in South Korea and the U.S. have said, just days after Pyongyang conducted its fifth nuclear test. Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co.
Kim “expressed great satisfaction” with the results of the test, according to KCNA, and said the North had made cutting-edge scientific advances despite hard economic conditions. Several sets of increasingly restrictive multilateral sanctions – targeting the North’s ability to do everything from sell coal to engage with the global banking system – have failed to stop a series of nuclear tests over the past few years.
A South Korean spokesman said the new engine has improved thrust.
Meeting on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Obama and Li slammed North Korea for conducting its fifth nuclear test and also agreed to coordinate closely to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the White House said in a statement.
World powers have viewed previous satellite launches as a disguise for the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, equipped to mount a nuclear warhead.
The United States also said that it is willing to talk and negotiate with the North if the country promises to stop its tests and give up its nuclear weapons, which Pyongyang has blatantly refused.
China and United States have also held talks pertaining to the same.
The test is the latest in a long-line of provocative missile tests this year.
China has repeatedly said it opposes North Korea’s nuclear programme, but has been criticised for not pushing hard enough for tougher sanctions against Pyongyang.
Kim called for his country’s space agency to speed up its technological advancement, despite now struggling to fix the damage caused by North Korea’s worst flood since being established in the wake of World War II.
The Sohae center is the North’s newly upgraded rocket station where the February launch of a satellite and other rocket tests have been conducted. “We are still analysing if the test was really successful”, the spokesperson said.
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“This new test heralds an upcoming landmark ICBM test”.
