North Korea’s neighbors began an uneasy waiting game Sunday, the start of an eight-day window for a planned North Korean long-range rocket launch.
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The secretive state will launch the satellite-bearing rocket between 7-14 February, the Japanese government has said, according to reports.
“The peninsula can not be nuclearised and can not have war or chaos”, President Xi Jinping said in a call with South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, adding that “peace and stability on the peninsula” should be maintained. It did not inform worldwide organizations of any other changes in its plan, and the rocket’s expected flight path remains the same, said South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun.
“We hope (North Korea) will exercise restraint and caution in its actions”.
Commercial satellite images from Wednesday and Thursday show the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad.
Officials for the International Maritime Organization and the International Telecommunications Union each told CNN that North Korea informed their respective organizations that it intends to launch a satellite.
Citing US government sources, the Britain’s mirror.co.uk reported that North Korea may fire an explosive device as early as Sunday.
Despite Pyongyang’s bellicose claims to the contrary, the North is still seen as being years away from developing a credible inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM).
That would put Australia, much of Western Europe, and the US west coast in range of a North Korean warhead.
Anxiety in the region has been heightened by North Korea’s claim that it carried out a fourth nuclear test last month, an activity also banned by UN Security Council resolutions.
“North Korea likely calculates that a launch so soon after the nuclear test will probably only incrementally affect the United Nations sanctions arising from that test”, said Alison Evans a senior analyst at IHS Jane’s.
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While infuriated by North Korea’s refusal to curb its nuclear ambitions, China’s overriding concern is avoiding a collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and the possibility of a US-allied unified Korea on its border.
