The formal talks come after North Korea launched a missile into space on Saturday in violation of global law.
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“In conducting this provocation, North Korea has clearly demonstrated that it is intent on prioritising the development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes over improving the well-being of its own people”.
Korean Central Television (KCTV), the only official source of television news in the country, said that North Korea is “legitimately exercising the right to use space for independent and peaceful purposes”, reports Spaceflight Insider.
The U.S. official said the United States had told China that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, was “a defensive system, designed specifically to counter the threat from North Korea” and not aimed at China.
Cook declined to state when exactly the US and South Korea would move forward with the talks.
Proposed sanctions have not been made public, but one diplomat said that Washington was hoping to tighten worldwide restrictions on North Korea’s banking system.
The country is banned from rocket launches using any ballistic missile technologies, according to multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
In an interview aired on Monday, Obama told CBS he was not surprised at the launch, adding: “We have been concerned about North Korea’s behaviour for a while”.
Coming so soon after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, a rocket launch would raise concern that it plans to fit nuclear warheads on its missiles.
China firmly opposes the deployment of the anti-missile hardware so close to its borders, but Cook said the THAAD system was in no way meant to pose a threat to the Asian giant.
“The objective of the THAAD system, again, is it’s a defensive system”.
North Korea’s recent rocket launch did not show any clear technological progress by Pyongyang in showing it has the ability to strike the US mainland with a missile, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. “So we’re going to continue to do what we need to do to protect the United States, our citizens and our allies at the same time”.
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The US said the launch represents “another destabilising and provocative action” and is “a flagrant violation” of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
