North Korea defied worldwide warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the USA mainland.
Advertisement
The long-range rocket was launched from North Korea’s west coast just hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning.
The North insists its space programme is purely scientific in nature but the US, South Korea and even Pyongyang’s ally China say the rocket launches are aimed at developing inter-continental ballistic missiles.
The South Korean government announced that it would begin official talks with the United States to deploy one of the most advanced USA missile defense systems in South Korea.
David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, said that while THAAD could not shoot down the type of rocket launched on Sunday its deployment could reassure the South Korean public.
“We think this is wrong for their national interests… for the Korean peninsula… for the region”, Churkin said.
Cook declined to state when exactly the US and South Korea would move forward with the talks.
The missile recently launched by North Korea is believed to have been a three-stage ballistic missile similar to an improved version of the Taepodong 2 missile, a model the country sent aloft in December 2012.
North Korea has said it had put a satellite into space using a multistage rocket.
In another development, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be in Hawaii, home to U.S. Pacific Command, to discuss North Korea’s launch with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts this week.
However, tensions are running particularly high in the area after Pyongyang on Sunday launched what it said was an observation satellite.
Previously, the United Nations has made threats they would “further significant measures” if North Korea were to ever again launch a missile.
The members of the Security Council held urgent consultations to address the serious situation arising from the launch using ballistic missile technology conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on February 7, 2016.
Advertisement
The official said Washington and Beijing remained in close touch on how to respond to North Korea.
