Russia, a member of long-stalled six-nation talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament, said in a statement that the North “is displaying glaring disdain for generally recognized norms of worldwide law” by violating U.N. Security Council resolutions, and urged it to “realistically assess all negative consequences of such shortsighted moves”.
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The country said an “earth observation satellite” is expected to be launched between February 8 and 25, Yonhap News Agency noted Wednesday.
North Korea has always been under an array of USA and United Nations sanctions for its ballistic missile and nuclear tests.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called the possible launch a “serious provocation”, adding that he would work with the US and South Korea to demand that Pyongyang abandon the planned launch.
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Russian Federation further called on North Korea to resume dialog over its nuclear program and other issues.
“We are extremely concerned about this”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a briefing.
South Korea has declared a no-fly zone off the south-west of the country out of concern that North Korea’s planned missile launch could damage or even bring down a commercial airliner.
The North insists its space programme is purely scientific in nature, but the United States and its allies say its rocket launches are aimed at developing an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking the U.S. mainland.
“For this reason, starting with the last launch after Japan threatened to shoot down its missiles, North Korea has used a trajectory that did not go over Japan”.
The degree of sanctions are thought to have been part of discussions, but some say, stopping Pyongyang from its satellite launch, what many may have been hoping for, was not Wu Dawei’s priority.
Last month, North Korea claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb although doubt was cast on this by the US and South Korean officials.
Models of different types of rockets are displayed at the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. Accordingly, its Foreign Ministry responded with some dismay at the news that North Korea is preparing a launch.
The planned launch poses a dilemma for the global community, which is already struggling to find a united response to the North’s January 6 nuclear test.
The military mobilized self-propelled howitzers, K-9 Thunder, tanks, Vulcan cannons and other shore-based artillery guns in one of the live-fire drills conducted on South Korean border islands in the Yellow Sea, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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Unlike with nuclear tests, Pyongyang is obliged to announce missile tests in advance, so they have occasionally had to reveal failures. Our ability to measure the effects of their nuclear bomb tests has been reduced as well, to the point that there is still some question about precisely what they detonated in their latest bomb test.
