South Korea to 'speak out' on NK test at UNSC
A North Korean long-range rocket is launched at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, Feb. 7, 2016. Korea Times file
By Kim Yoo-chul
By Kim Yoo-chul
South Korea will attend the upcoming United Nations Security Council meeting which will be held early Thursday (KST) at the request of the United States, Seoul’s foreign ministry said, Tuesday.
Foreign ministry spokesman Kim In-chul told reporters in a regular briefing at the ministry’s headquarters in downtown Seoul that South Korea is “discussing with the United States and other countries, regarding North Korea’s recent tests very thoroughly.”
Kim didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the discussion or Seoul’s position regarding the North’s latest provocations.
But another ministry official said South Korea will “speak out” during the UNSC meeting.
The Trump administration asked the UNSC to officially discuss the North’s recent test and “the possibility of an escalatory” provocation from Pyongyang, the U.S. State Department confirmed.
The North’s Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said Sunday the country had carried out a “very important test” at a missile testing site the North had previously promised to completely dismantle. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un set the end of this year as a deadline for the resumption of denuclearization negotiations with the United States. A senior North Korean official threatened that it is up to Washington to decide which “Christmas gift” it would like to receive.
Worries are that the test could be a precursor for North Korea to resume its testing of nuclear weapons and long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), tests which have been suspended since 2017.
In Australia, South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said the North’s “very important test” was believed to be a rocket engine test conducted at the Dongchang-ri site, also known as the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground.
Speaking to reporters, the South Korean defense minister, who was attending a defense ministers’ talks between Seoul and Sydney, said the two governments agreed to express “deep concern” over the North’s recent test.
“South Korea is urging North Korea to stop any further provocations, which are simply no good in terms of reducing military tensions on the Korean Peninsula as well as the international community,” Jeong said at a news conference after wrapping up the talks, Tuesday.
Separately, defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said in a briefing that North Korea was at the stage of developing ICBMs to a usable level. “It’s fair to say North Korean missile capabilities are continuing to mature but we can’t say they have fully matured,” the spokeswoman told reporters in Seoul.
Washington had initially planned to raise North Korea’s human rights issues at the UNSC meeting. However, the United States, which is the chair of the UNSC this month, said later it will focus entirely on the looming threat of military escalation by North Korea. The North Korean leader has met the U.S. president three times, once each in Singapore, Hanoi and South Korea’s side of the truce village of Panmunjeom.
Kim vowed to dismantle the North’s nuclear program but has yet to present comprehensive and detailed denuclearization steps, asking the United States to provide it with wide economic benefits as a prerequisite to fulfilling its promise.
Recent working-level discussions between Washington and Pyongyang nuclear negotiators held in Stockholm, Sweden, were broken off without producing any agreements with the North blaming Washington for failing to come up with a “new method and calculation.”