South Korea warns North against rocket launch
Seoul has warned Pyongyang against any rocket launch, saying it would consider any such move by North Korea as a serious provocation.
“Any launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea is a serious act of provocation,” South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters on Tuesday.
North Korea has said it is in the “final phase” of developing and launching a satellite into space.
North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) said earlier on Tuesday that the “world will clearly see a series of satellites of Songun Korea soaring into the sky.”
The NADA said the dates and locations of the launches will be determined soon by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
It is, however, being speculated that the North might launch a satellite to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the WPK on October 10.
Missiles & sanctions
North Korea is under UN sanctions over launching ballistic missile considered by the West as being aimed at delivering nuclear warheads.
Pyongyang says its missile tests, slammed mainly by the US and South Korea, seek to boost defense capabilities in the face of enemy threats.
Referring to North’s plan for the rocket launch, Kim, the South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, said, “It is a military threat and a clear violation of the UN resolutions banning any activities using ballistic missile technology.”
Twins with bad blood
The two Koreas have had rocky relations ever since the Korean war in the early 1950s.
Last month, tensions soared when both sides installed loudspeakers on their common de facto border – the most heavily militarized one in the world – to broadcast propaganda against one another. A military confrontation seemed inevitable with military build-ups along the border; however, tensions were quickly diffused when the two sides held negotiations to address differences in late August.
Seoul and Pyongyang also planned reunions for the families separated by the war. The get-togethers, scheduled for October, will be the first ones since they were last held in February 2014.
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