North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has praised scientists involved in the nation’s recent rocket launch that he said struck a “telling blow” to enemies and ordered them to press ahead with more launches, state media reported yesterday.
Earlier this month, North Korea ignored repeated international warnings and launched what it said was an Earth observation satellite aboard a rocket. Washington, Seoul and others view the launch as a prohibited test of missile technology and are pushing hard to have Pyongyang slapped with strong sanctions.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the ruling Workers’ Party on Saturday gave a banquet in honor of scientists, officials and others, who it said contributed to a Feb. 7 rocket launch. Kim and his top deputies were present.
Photo: AP
In a speech, Kim said the launch gave confidence and courage to his people and dealt a “telling blow to the enemies seeking to block the advance of our country,” KCNA said, in an apparent reference to Seoul and Washington.
Kim said North Korea’s launch decision was made when “the hostile forces were getting evermore frantic to suffocate” North Korea, and called for launching more working satellites.
The launch, which followed North Korea’s fourth nuclear test last month, aggravated already-strained ties between the nation and South Korea. Last week, Pyongyang expelled all South Korean workers from a jointly run factory park in North Korea and put the area in charge of the military in retaliation for Seoul’s decision to suspend operations there.
Seoul on Sunday accused North Korea of having channeled about 70 percent of the money it received for workers at the Kaesong industrial park into its weapons programs and to buy luxury goods for the impoverished nation’s tiny elite.
North Korea was able to divert the money because the workers in Kaesong were not paid directly. Instead, US dollars were paid to the North Korean government, which siphoned off most of the money and paid only what it wanted to the employees in North Korean currency and store vouchers, according to a statement from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification.
The South Korean government estimate did not detail how it arrived at that percentage. North Korea has previously dismissed such views.
The jointly run park, which was the two nations’ last major cooperation project, employed about 54,000 North Koreans, who worked for more than 120 South Korean companies, most of them small and medium-size manufacturers. The project, which began during an era of relatively good relations between the nations, combined cheap North Korean labor with the capital and technology of wealthy South Korea.
While the Kaesong closure is likely to hurt North Korea, it is not critical to the nation’s economy. North Korea gets the vast majority of its earnings from trade with China.
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