North Korea fires projectiles hours after UN approves tough sanctions
Print Edition
NORTH Korea fired six short-range projectiles into the sea off its east coast yesterday, South Korean officials said, just hours after the UN Security Council approved the toughest sanctions in two decades on the country for its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.
The firings also came shortly after South Korea’s National Assembly passed its first legislation on human rights in North Korea.
The North Korean projectiles, fired from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan, flew about 100 to 150 kilometers before landing in the sea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
It wasn’t known what North Korea fired, they could have been be missiles, artillery or rockets, South Korea’s defense ministry said. North Korea routinely test-fires missiles and rockets, but often conducts weapons launches when angered at international condemnation.
Yesterday’s firings were seen as a “low-level” response to the UN sanctions, with North Korea unlikely to launch any major provocation until its landmark ruling Workers’ Party convention in May, according to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
North Korea has not issued an official reaction to the new UN sanctions. But citizens interviewed its capital, Pyongyang, yesterday said they believed their country could fight off any sanctions.
“No kind of sanctions will ever work on us, because we’ve lived under US sanctions for more than half a century,” said Pyongyang resident Song Hyo Il. “And in the future, we’re going to build a powerful and prosperous country here, relying on our own development.”
North Korea’s state media earlier warned that the imposition of new sanctions would be a “grave provocation” that shows “extreme” US hostility against the country. It said the sanctions would not result in the country’s collapse or prevent it from launching more rockets.
The UN sanctions include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to North Korea; and the expulsion of North Korean diplomats who engage in “illicit activities.”
In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb. Last month, it put a satellite into orbit with a long-range rocket that the UN and others saw as a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology.
Just before the UN sanctions were unanimously adopted, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill that would establish a center tasked with collecting, archiving and publishing information about human rights in North Korea.
It is required to transfer that information to the justice ministry, a step officials say would provide legal grounds to punish rights violators when the two Koreas eventually reunify.
North Korea, which views any criticism of its rights situation as part of a US-led plot, had warned that enactment of the law would result in “miserable ruin.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
