North Korea launched a long-range rocket that it said carried communication satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, named after late leader Kim Jong Il, on Sunday morning.
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But the move was internationally condemned as North Korea is banned under United Nations sanctions from using any ballistic missile technology.
Pyongyang claims it used a Kwangmyongsong rocket to put a satellite into orbit on Sunday, but Washington and Seoul believe that’s just a cover story to obscure the Hermit Kingdom’s latest demonstration of ballistic missile technology that could be used to deliver a nuclear weapon.
Lee Sun-jin, South Korean Army General and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Katsutoshi Kawano, head of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces, would participate in the meeting, which was scheduled after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6.
Cook declined to state when exactly the US and South Korea would move forward with the talks.
But the Security Council provided no details on the nature of any new sanctions it may pursue against the country, which has ignored an array of existing punitive measures with a series of long-range rocket launches and nuclear weapons tests in recent years.
“China holds a consistent and clear stance on the anti-missile issue”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday.
Beijing was reluctant to support impositions on the North’s banking system for fear of worsening conditions in its impoverished neighbour, the diplomat said.
Now the longtime allies are set to formally discuss deploying the U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known as THAAD, to South Korea.
Harris last month told the Center for worldwide and Strategic Studies think tank that he was a strong advocate of building and expanding multilateral relationships in the region, including one among the United States, Japan and South Korea.
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.
“Such act demonstrates a disregard for the global community’s concerns over the DPRK’s continued nuclear programme, which has been a grave threat to worldwide peace and security”, the statement said.
“It’s going to be focused on the threat posed by North Korea”, Cook said.
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Experts are yet to validate any signals from the newly launched satellite, but CBS News correspondent David Martin quoted United States officials as saying that the satellite was “tumbling in orbit”.
