South Korea Warned the North ahead of Plan to Launch Satellite
North
Korea said on Tuesday it intended to carry out the launch between 8 and 25
February.
Critics
say it is a cover for a test of ballistic missile technology.
Japan's
defence minister said he had issued an order to shoot down any missile that
threatened to fall on Japanese territory.
The US has said any
North Korean launch would be an "egregious violation" of a UN ban on
missile launches by North Korea, and called for more sanctions.
North
Korea has always said its space programme is peaceful, but it is believed to be
developing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
It also conducted its
fourth nuclear bomb test on 6 January, drawing international condemnation.
§
May 2015: North Korea
announces it has successfully
tested a submarine-launched missile for the first time, but
scepticism is then poured on the claim
§
Dec 2012: North Korea
launches three-stage rocket, says it successfully put a satellite into orbit;
US defence officials confirm object in orbit
§
Apr 2012: Three-stage
rocket explodes just after take-off, falls into sea
§
Apr 2009: Three-stage
rocket launched; North Korea says it was a success, US says it failed and fell
into the sea
§
Jul 2006: North Korea
test-fires a long-range Taepodong-2 missile; US said it failed shortly after
take-off
Cho Tae-yang, a senior
South Korean presidential official, said on Wednesday that the satellite plan was
considered a "direct challenge to the international community".
"We warn that if
North Korea proceeds with a long-range missile launch, the international
society will ensure that the North pays searing consequences for it."
Japan's Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe said the launch plan was a "serious provocation", while
Russia's foreign ministry said Pyongyang showed "an outrageous disregard
for the universally recognised norms of international law".
Meanwhile, Chinese
foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: "`We hope all sides show
restraint and... avoid any moves that may increase the tensions on the [Korean]
Peninsula."
China is Pyongyang's
biggest trading partner and only ally, although relations have cooled since Kim
Jong-un succeeded his father.
China's top nuclear
envoy Wu Dawei is currently visiting Pyongyang.
The International
Maritime Organization (IMO) said on Tuesday that it had been notified of
Pyongyang's plans to launch a satellite between 8 and 25 February.
However North Korean
media do not appear to have reported on the DPRK's letter to the UN maritime
agency so far, says BBC Monitoring, meaning many North Koreans will not be
aware of it.
Analysts say a new
launch would allow North Korea to test some - but not all - of the technology
needed for a long-range nuclear strike.
The recent nuclear
test and the planned satellite launch could be part of 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, experts say.
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.
The UN Security Council subsequently called it a "clear
violation" of resolutions banning North Korea from missiles tests, and imposed sanctions.
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