In addition to the PAC-3 surface-to-air missiles, the Defense Ministry also dispatched three Aegis destroyers carrying Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) interceptors to the Sea of Japan and East China Sea.
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The ITU received a letter from the DPRK Permanent Mission to the United Nations, informing that North Korea plans to launch an Earth observation satellite, spokesman for the Geneva-based ITU Sanjay Acharya told TASS on Tuesday.
The headline on the screen reads “North Korea plans to launch a missile”.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament Wednesday that the missile threat is a serious provocation. The two governments have been calling on China to increase sanctions to bring about change in North Korea.
As a ballistic missile is on the launch pad, it is possible that Pyongyang is preparing a launch there, the report added.
Moon also revealed that the South is working with the United States to monitor any launch that takes place north of the border – around 30,000 American military personnel are stationed on the peninsula as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. If the missile follows a similar route to the 2012 launch, the first stage will fall into the Yellow Sea, more debris is likely to come down near South Korea’s Jeju Island and the second stage will fall into the Pacific off the east coast of the Philippines.
North Korea is thought to have made progress towards developing a nuclear warhead small enough to be mounted on a missile capable of striking the United States mainland, but experts believe the country is some way off perfecting an inter-continental ballistic missile capability.
Less than one month since North Korea’s latest nuclear test, Pyongyang is rattling its long-range, inter-continental ballistic missiles, setting off yet another crisis in Northeast Asia.
The Korea Times quoted an article from Gordon Chang at the Daily Beast, who thought North Korea might soon test an even more formidable weapon: the long-range, solid-fueled, mobile KN-08.
During his recent visit to China, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Beijing to cooperate in imposing sanctions, as it “has a particular ability because of its special role and its connections to North Korea”.
South Korea press reported that in talks with the North Wu could have apprised officials of the inevitability of stronger sanctions in the wake of the country’s fourth nuclear test and an impending rocket launch.
China’s top nuclear envoy Wu Dawei, now visiting Pyongyang, is to discuss the situation with officials there.
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North Korea, an autocracy run by the same family since 1948, is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles, but it closely guards details about its nuclear and missile programs.
