South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday a South Korean navy ship has retrieved what is suspected to be the rocket fairing shed by Pyongyang’s long-range rocket on the same day.
Advertisement
It also vowed to take “significant measures” over the rogue state’s nuclear test in January that Pyongyang claims was a hydrogen bomb.
Following an urgent meeting to discuss the North Korean test, the Security Council also called the test a threat to world security.
The UN Security Council is expected to hold emergency consultations today to address this issue.
South Korea and the United States said they would explore whether to deploy an advanced missile defence system in South Korea “at the earliest possible date”.
The launch is a serious violation of Security Council resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), and 2094 (2013), it said.
North Korea has said it had put a satellite into space using a multistage rocket.
CHINA ‘expressed regret’ over North Korea’s rocket launch.
North Korea’s state television said the launch – ordered by leader Kim Jong Un to put a “satellite” in space – was a “complete success”.
He said the Americans had been pushing for tough new measures that went beyond targeting North Korea’s atomic weapons and missile programmes, while China wanted any future steps to focus on the question of non-proliferation. The successful launch showed the North is moving closer to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S.
Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the country’s four nuclear tests and three of its long-range rocket tests since taking over power after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.
“We are compelled to state clearly that Pyongyang has not listened to the calls of the worldwide community, having once again demonstrated glaring disregard for the norms of global law”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Advertisement
Thousands of U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea and Japan. Though Pyongyang describes its long-range Unha tests as ostensibly for the goal of delivering earth observation satellites into orbit, a warhead modification could enable these missiles to serve as long-range delivery vehicles for a nuclear device.
