“We strongly warn that the North will pay a severe price… if it goes ahead with the long-range missile launch plan”, it said.
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Seoul’s warning came after the North notified United Nations agencies late on Tuesday of its plan to launch what it called an “earth observation satellite” sometime between February 8 and 25.
Others suggested the move may be part of a careful strategy in response to possible UNSC sanctions over the test. Given the need for ballistic missile technology after its nuclear test, analysts said, the country opted to announce its rocket test now after concluding that it would be better to take sanctions all at once rather than have two separate UNSC measures. “Still valid are all proposals for preserving peace and stability on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia”, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman told the country’s KCNA news agency, “including the ones for ceasing our nuclear test and the conclusion of a peace treaty in return for USA halt to joint military exercises”.
The study focused on new movements at the Horizontal Processing Building that suggested Pyongyang was preparing for a space launch.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that the North is pushing ahead with the launch plans at its west coast Tongchang-ri launch site. “I feel like we are the ones, outside of North Korea, that are responding with the same things”, said Moon, the South Korea-Korea Foundation chair at the Brookings Institution.
It seems that the arrogance of North Korea has also got on the nerves of the Russians, who expressed deep concerns over Pyongyang’s planned carrier rocket launch.
Earlier on Tuesday, China’s envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue arrived in the capital Pyongyang, the North’s KCNA news agency reported.
Japan put its military on alert yesterday to shoot down any North Korean rocket that threatens it.
As U.S. lawmakers consider new sanctions on North Korea, a similar effort is underway at the United Nations, where the U.S. and other permanent members of the Security Council are pressing a seemingly reluctant China to endorse tough penalties against Pyongyang.
South Korea says that the test would violate a ban on ballistic missile tests, and comes just a few weeks after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon for the fourth time. China is North Korea’s only major ally.
The North last conducted a long-range rocket launch in December 2012, successfully putting into orbit an object Pyongyang claimed was a communications satellite with the three-stage Unha-3 carrier. And North Korea contends it has withdrawn from any global agreements that would limit its weaponry.
It is no secret that China wants to avoid destabilizing the Kim regime and unleashing a flood of North Korean refugees. South Korea warned on Wednesday of “searing” conseque…
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Analysts say that the recent activity could be a build-up to the seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea due to be held in coming months, the first to be held since 1980, where leader Kim Jong-un is expected to show off North Korea’s nuclear programme.
