North Korea’s nuclear weapons should be ready for use at “any moment”, leader Kim Jong-un has said, amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.
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The firing of six missiles with a range of 100-150 kilometers, which came hours after the Security Council adopted the Resolution 2270, was an apparent show of force aimed at expressing the Pyongyang government’s defiance over the new United Nations sanctions.
“We urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric that aggravate tensions and instead focus on fulfilling its worldwide obligations and commitments”, the official said yesterday.
South Korea’s National Assembly on Wednesday passed its first legislation on human rights in North Korea, in a move that is expected to enrage its northern rival. The resolution contains the toughest set of sanctions imposed by the Security Council in more than two decades, said Secretary of State John Kerry.
South Korea, which put its military on heightened alert, was trying to determine if the projectiles were short-range missiles or artillery fire, the South’s Defense Ministry said.
The western world already knew that North Korea had a number of warheads up its sleeve, but until now assumed that it had no means of accurately launching them.
The nuclear test and missile launch outraged the Security Council and anxious neighboring nations.
Limited displays of military firepower have become a routine response by the North to worldwide pressure over anything from its nuclear weapons program to its human rights record.
But the main opposition party eventually agreed on the bill’s passage amid deepening global criticism of North Korea’s nuclear test and rocket launch.
“Now is the time for us to convert our mode of military counteraction toward the enemies into a pre-emptive attack one in every aspect”, Kim said.
State media in the North indicated earlier that new sanction will be considered as a “grave provocation” indicating the “extreme” hostility of the United States against the country.
One the one hand, it is annoyed that Seoul was due to start talks later on Friday with Washington about deploying the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, missile defence system in South Korea, as China believes it could also be used against its weapons systems.
In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb.
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Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said the short-range projectiles fired by the North indicate that they are not yet drawing any proper conclusions.
