South Korea warned on Wednesday of “searing” conseque…
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Japan has legitimate concerns about the possibility of North Korea launching a rocket which would fly over Japanese territory, and is ready to shoot it down, Dr. Fred Fleitz, Senior Vice President for Policy and Programs at the Center for Security Policy, told Radio Sputnik.
Ban held talks on the planned rocket launch in London at the International Maritime Organisation, which received a notice from North Korea. North Korea booted out global inspectors in 2009, and independent assessments by outside experts since then have been spotty.
South Korea has vowed to shoot down any missile parts in their airspace from an anticipated rocket launch this month by North Korea. Enough with deep concern -stop building islands in the South China Sea and Pacific to threaten other Asian nations, and rein in North Korea, now. This suggests that the North is preparing for a space launch in coming weeks, according to 38 North, a North Korea-focused website run by the U.S-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
The Washington-based North Korean monitoring project 38 North said commercial satellite images of North Korea’s Sohae launch site taken on Monday showed activity consistent with preparations for a launch within North Korea’s given timeframe, but no indications that this was imminent.
The timing couldn’t have appeared worse.
North Korea’s announcement came during a visit to Pyongyang by China’s top envoy to North Korea, Wu Dawei.
South Korean officials routinely refer to them as “long-range missiles” rather than space rockets.
“This meeting served as a midterm review ahead of the Workers’ Party congress in May, which is symbolic of the start of the Kim Jong-un era”, Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea studies professor at Korea University, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday.
South Korea called on the North to “withdraw its plan” for the satellite launch”, warning it would “pay a harsh price if it proceeded.
Behind the scenes, frantic diplomatic efforts were in play in an attempt to convince North Korea to cancel the launch, which would be in blatant disregard of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Reports of the planned launch led to renewed calls by the USA for tougher United Nations sanctions, which already being discussed following North Korea’s recent nuclear test.
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The defense ministry concluded in its 2015 white paper that if North Korea develops long-range ballistic missiles using technologies tested in the launches, “the missiles could have ranges that potentially reach the central, western and other areas of the USA mainland”. The second stage will fall into the waters west of the Philippines.
