South Korea yesterday condemned North Korea’s planned rocket launch as a “grave provocation,” saying it was a disguised attempt to develop a long-range ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Seoul also extended a security alert in the capital and said it was concerned the North might follow the ballistic missile launch with another nuclear test.
The North announced on Friday it would put a satellite into orbit next month, barely two weeks after reaching an agreement with Washington to suspend long-range missile launches as part of a deal to restart food aid.
“Our government defines North Korea’s so-called working satellite launch plan as a grave provocation to develop a long-distance delivery means for nuclear weapons by using ballistic missile technology,” South Korean presidential spokesman Park Jung-ha said in a statement.
Washington says the North’s long-range ballistic missile program is progressing quickly and last year said the US mainland could come under threat within five years.
The North has twice tested a nuclear device, but experts doubt whether it yet has the ability to miniaturize an atomic bomb to place atop a warhead.
Pyongyang is believed to have enough fissile material to make up to a dozen nuclear bombs and in 2010 it unveiled a uranium enrichment facility to go with its plutonium program, which opened a second route to making an atomic weapon.
Yesterday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met with the foreign and security-related ministers to discuss the North’s surprise announcement, which also flies in the face of a UN Security Council resolution banning long-range missile launches.
Park said in a statement that Seoul would work closely with the US, Japan, China and Russia — all members of the six-party forum which deals with the North’s nuclear program — during next week’s Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul.
The South’s defense ministry said it had established a team to monitor the rocket launch and would maintain a heightened defense alert for the Security Summit in Seoul through to the rocket launch, scheduled for between April 12 and April 16.
Ministry spokesman Yoon Won-shik told reporters that Seoul and Washington would use “surveillance assets” to watch the missile base in Tongchang-ri and follow the flight path after it is launched.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
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