Serious concerns over NK launch
Print Edition
CHINA is “seriously concerned” about North Korea’s plan to launch a satellite later this month, a foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday.
Lu Kang told a daily press briefing that Beijing hopes Pyongyang will exercise restraint on the issue and deal with it prudently so as to avoid a possible escalation in tensions.
“We are extremely concerned about this,” Lu said. “In the present situation, we hope North Korea exercises restraint on the issue of launching satellites, acts cautiously and does not take any escalatory steps that may further raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
North Korea is entitled to the peaceful use of outer space, yet this right is restricted by the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions, Lu said.
China will continue to communicate with all parties concerned to safeguard peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, he said. It is a shared responsibility of all parties concerned to maintain peace on the peninsula, and regional stability is in the interests of all sides, he added.
A spokesman for the UN said on Tuesday that three UN organizations had been informed of North Korea’s plans to launch an earth-observation satellite between February 8 and 25.
North Korea has said it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program by launching rockets, although the United States and other governments suspect that such launches are in reality tests of its missiles.
Japan put its military on alert yesterday to shoot down any North Korean rocket that threatens it, while South Korea warned that North Korea would pay a “severe price” if it goes ahead with the satellite launch.
“We have defenses ready to deal with all threats, but in view of the announcement I have put the Self Defense Force’s Aegis destroyers and our PAC-3 units on alert and issued an order to shoot down any ballistic missile threat,” Gen Nakatani, Japan’s defense minister, told reporters.
South Korea said North Korea should immediately call off the launch, which is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, Seoul’s presidential Blue House said in a statement.
“North Korea’s notice of the plan to launch a long-range missile, coming at a time when there is a discussion for Security Council sanctions on its fourth nuclear test, is a direct challenge to the international community,” the Blue House said. “We strongly warn that the North will pay a severe price ... if it goes ahead with the long-range missile launch plan,” it said.
Reports of the planned launch drew fresh US calls for tougher UN sanctions that are already under discussion in response to North Korea’s January 6 nuclear test.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United Nations needed to “send the North Koreans a swift, firm message.”
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