Official moves towards the deployment of a U.S. missile defence system in South Korea in the wake of Pyongyang’s latest rocket launch will increase pressure on Beijing to bring its errant neighbour to heel, analysts say.
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“But what we’re also doing is consulting with the South Koreans for the first time about more missile defense capabilities to prevent any possibility that North Korea could reach USA facilities or USA populations”.
South Korea had been reluctant to publicly discuss the possibility due to worries about upsetting China, its biggest trading partner.
The satellite North Korea launched into space earlier this week has achieved orbit, but whether it is operating normally has not been verified, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
Soon after the January nuclear test, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the United States was responsible for much of the tension on the Korean Peninsula, saying “it boils down to Uncle Sam’s uncompromising hostility… flaring up the country’s insecurity and thus pushing it toward reckless nuclear brinkmanship”.
Likewise, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that on top of Canberra’s ban on trade in luxury and military products and services with the DPRK, the country is considering adding more unilateral action against North Korea.
While the claim was met with skepticism in Washington, it has nonetheless heightened concerns over the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The North Korean rocket on Sunday flew over Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture. However, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga did not provide details of the planned sanction when he announced it on Monday at a news conference.
China has criticized the plans to implement THAAD, and it summoned the South Korean ambassador following Seoul’s announcement on the system.
“A long-range rocket is launched into space at the Dongchang-ri launch site at Cholsan-gun, Pyonganpuk-do, on February 7 at 9:30 a.m.”, said an official at the defense ministry.
THAAD is created to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles inside or just outside the atmosphere during their final, or terminal, phase of flight.
The North is thought to have a small arsenal of crude atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles.
Cook said an eventual THAAD deployment would be operated by U.S. forces in South Korea.
South Korean opposition lawmaker Shin Kyung-min, who attended a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service following Sunday’s launch, said the NIS believes that the rocket’s payload satellite was about twice as heavy as the 220-pound satellite it launched in 2012.
“Much of what missile defense programs are about is reassuring allies and the public”, he said.
The boat retreated after the South Korean Navy fired warning shots.
“This launch is regrettable evidence that North Korea continues to prioritise the development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes over the wellbeing of its own people”.
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Right after the separation, the first stage was exploded into some 270 fragments with self-destructor to prevent South Korea from discovering the first stage and assessing it, the ministry said.
