Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday condemned North Korea for test-firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile in defiance of United Nations resolutions.
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The statement referred to Wednesday’s launch as well as other North Korean ballistic missile launches since July 9.
North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions since 2006.
He said South Korea should “wake up and kick the Americans out”.
Pyongyang yesterday also expressed anger at UN Security Council discussions over a statement denouncing the country’s latest submarine-launched missile test.
The main obstacle to council consensus has been China.
“The U.S. and its followers committed a serious hostile act of finding fault with the DPRK’s [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s] measures for bolstering nuclear deterrence for self-defense, such as the strategic submarine-launched ballistic missile test-fire”, the Korean Central News Agency said in a statement carried by Yonhap news agency.
North Korea has repeatedly flouted Security Councilresolutions demanding an end to its nuclear and ballisticmissile activities and has continued to launch missiles, escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the region.
That warning has apparently led to today’s decision by Russian Federation and China to seriously consider building a joint missile defense system to counter THAAD’s electronic espionage.
The North balked at the UN’s latest condemning statement on Sunday. But Wit says there is cause for concern, “because this is just one more step in terms of steady progress that North Korea is making in building nuclear weapons and building missiles to deliver them”. Its nuclear program is also costly, especially given the sanctions that result. The submarine-launched test-firing is the third of its kind this year and marks an escalation in the North’s provocations, showing its apparent progress in developing weapons technology.
Despite the price they pay in sanctions, officials sometimes cite the example of Libya, and the killing of strongman Moammar Gadhafi, as what happens to leaders who cave in to worldwide pressure to give up their nuclear ambitions.
Panmunjom, jointly overseen by North Korea and the UN Command, is where an armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War was signed and is now a popular tourist spot for visitors from both sides.
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North Korea yesterday threatened to fire at lighting equipment used by “provocative” United States and South Korean troops at a truce village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.
