Off the wire
• 1st LD Writethru: Pyongyang says to further develop nuke weapons both in quality, quantity  • Nigeria to battle Burkina Faso in All Africa Games football semis  • 1st Ld: China stocks dive 4 pct Tuesday  • WTA Quebec results  • Amazon Fund has enough capital to bankroll projects until 2019  • ELN rebels kill 3 soldiers in northeastern Colombia  • Indian police detain 4 for suspected link with IS  • Death toll from dengue rises to 9 in Indian capital  • Profile: Australian new "progressive, charismatic" PM Malcolm Turnbull  • 1st LD: S. Korea to rapidly respond to possible DPRK rocket launch  
You are here: 　 Home

2nd LD Writethru: S.Korea to rapidly respond to possible DPRK rocket launch

Xinhua, September 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Korea said Tuesday that it will make rapid and effective responses to possible launch of a long-range rocket by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK) via the UN Security Council.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il told a press briefing that the DPRK's launch of any ballistic missile will be a grave act of provocation and military threat in violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions that ban the DPRK's all acts using any ballistic missile technology.

To take rapid and effective measures via the UN Security Council in response to any DPRK launch of a long-range ballistic missile, South Korea will closely cooperate with related countries, including members of the UN Security Council, the spokesman said.

His comments came a day after the DPRK's National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) said that it was accelerating efforts at the final stage of developing satellites for earth observations, indicating the long-range rocket launch around the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Oct. 10.

Until now, no specific movements have been detected for the DPRK's long-range rocket launch, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a press briefing, saying that the country was closely monitoring all situations about the DPRK's long-range missile firing along with the United States.

The anonymous NADA director told the official KCNA news agency that successful progress has been made in its expansion of launching grounds for higher-level satellite lift-off, noting that the world will witness more satellites of Songun (military-first policy of the DPRK) fired into the sky at the times and locations determined by its ruling party.

Such comments fueled speculations that Pyongyang may test-fire a long-range rocket, which South Korea claimed was a ballistic missile, around the upcoming Oct. 10 grand celebrations.

The DPRK recently erected a 67-meter-long launch tower for long- range rockets, taller than the previous 50-meter pad, at a Tongchang-ri rocket base in the northwest DPRK. The country fired a three-stage Unha-3 rocket into the space orbit in December 2012, two months before its third nuclear test. Endi