UN Security Council condemns North Korean rocket launch

The interview was conducted on Sunday, when North Korea launched a long-range rocket that it said carried a satellite but stoked fears about its nuclear weapons capabilities.

“This nuclear testing coupled with the testing of ballistic missile technology… was always likely to strengthen the argument that South Korea needs to bolster its missile defences”, said Ben Goodlad, principal weapons analyst at IHS Aerospace, Defence and Security.

A diplomatic source in Beijing said China might have used a stronger term for South Korea’s decision about the THAAD than North Korea’s launch.

Both China and Britain summoned North Korea’s ambassadors to their capitals protest the launch, their governments said.

The 15-member Security Council strongly condemned the launch and pledged to “expeditiously” adopt a new resolution with “further significant measures” – United Nations code for sanctions.

“This is a way of sending a signal to China that what North Korea does has real consequences, including consequences for Beijing’s own security interests”, Wit said.

Russian Federation said Pyongyang “once again demonstrated a flagrant disregard of norms of global law”.

Washington sought to reassure its allies South Korea and Japan of its commitment to their defense after the launch, which followed a North Korean nuclear test on January 6.

Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook previously confirmed that North Korea “put a satellite or some space device into orbit”.

North Korea’s rocket launch, widely viewed as a covert ballistic missile test, was seen as another slap in the face of China, which had dispatched its chief nuclear envoy to Pyongyang days before the launch.

Lockheed referred all questions about a possible THAAD deployment to the US military.

North Korea fired the rocket Sunday despite warnings from a number of countries who claimed the satellite launch was a front for a long-range missile test. North Korea maintains the launch is for scientific and “peaceful purposes”. The Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite entered orbit nine minutes and 46 seconds after the liftoff, an operation “great leader Kim Jong Un personally ordered and directed”, the TV announcer said.

Still, the legislation would elevate the stakes, as the US and China, which fought on oppose sides in the 1950-53 Korean War, grapple with a North Korea which appears impervious to diplomatic pressure and intent on building a bigger nuclear arsenal.

One of the four THAAD batteries based at Fort Bliss, Texas, is always ready for deployment overseas, and could be sent to Japan or South Korea within weeks, Ellison said.

“But if anything, it would be China’s implementation of existing sanctions that would tighten the screws on North Korea”.