Britain summoned North Korea’s ambassador on Monday to condemn Pyongyang’s announcement that it had put a satellite into orbit with a rocket launch.
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North Korea put a satellite or some other space device into orbit at the launch, U.S. officials said on Monday.
When North Korea defiantly launched a long-range rocket on Sunday, South Korea announced it would begin formal talks with the United States to deploy an advanced US missile shield to South Korea to better defend itself from the North’s growing threats of nuclear and missile capabilities.
South Koreans watch a TV news program with file footage of North Korea’s rocket-launch plans, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, February 3, 2016.
At its plenary session on Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution to protest North Korea’s latest launch of a long-range ballistic missile. “We call upon the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea) to refrain from such actions, which adversely affect peace and stability in the region”, the Indian foreign ministry statement said.
The country is banned from rocket launches using any ballistic missile technologies, according to multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
The US and regional allies South Korea and Japan tracked the rocket – but stopped short of blasting it out of the sky as they had threatened to do.
“The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this launch”, Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, president of the council this month, told reporters.
“It quickly retreated after the South Korean navy fired warning shots”, a ministry official said.
The UN Security Council has also stepped in on the issue by way of an emergency meeting held on Sunday, promising sanction to North Korea over the U.N. Resolution violation.
North Korea is believed to be working on miniaturizing a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, but many experts say it is some time away from perfecting such technology.
North Korea continues to disregard worldwide condemnations of its actions and aired footage of celebrations in Pyongyang.
In response, Park expressed support for Japan’s move to strengthen unilateral sanctions against North Korea.
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Park made phone calls with Obama and Abe, just a day after the DPRK’s fourth nuclear test in early January, and had agreed to seek strong and comprehensive sanctions against the DPRK.
