North Korea rocket launch will have 'serious consequences', US forecasts

The US vowed “serious consequences” for North Korea’s rocket launch with ballistic missile technology on Sunday, as secretary of state John Kerry called foreign ministers in South Korea and Japan to discuss actions against the pariah state. The State Department said in a statement that Kerry reassured both foreign ministers that the US has an “ironclad commitment to the security and defense” of its allies. He told them the rocket launch, ostensibly to send a satellite into orbit, “threatened international peace and security”, according to the statement. Earlier on Sunday, the 15 representatives of the United Nations security council held an emergency meeting to discuss the launch, and unanimously condemned North Korea for defying sanctions against it. Standing alongside her counterparts from South Korea and Japan, American ambassador Samantha Power told reporters: “We will ensure that the security council imposes serious consequences. DPRK’s latest transgressions require our response to be even firmer.” “The members of the security council strongly condemned this launch,” said Rafael Dario Ramírez Carreño, the Venezuelan ambassador and president of the council this month. He told reporters the launch was “a serious violation”. Ramírez Carreño said the council “restated their intent to develop significant measures” against North Korea, as a consequence of a nuclear test in January and Sunday’s rocket launch. Power said she hoped the council would vote on a draft resolution to expand existing UN sanctions on North Korea “as quickly as possible”. “It is urgent and overdue,” she said, adding that she hoped China would put pressure on the isolated country. “We are hopeful that China, like all council members, will see the grave threat to regional, international peace and security, see the importance of adopting tough, unprecedented measures, breaking new ground,” Power said. Diplomats said Washington is closely consulting with Japan, South Korea, Britain and France on its discussions with China, while Beijing is keeping in close contact with Russia, another nation with veto powers over resolutions. Kerry and Ramírez Carreño also stressed the importance of a united international response. Japan’s ambassador, Motohide Yoshikawa, said the draft under discussion would have “much more strengthened measures” against Pyongyang. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one senior western diplomat said he hoped the council would be able to vote on a new sanctions resolution this month. He said the Americans have been pushing for tough new measures that went beyond targeting North Korea’s atomic weapons and missile programs, while China wanted any future steps to focus on the question of nonproliferation. One diplomat said that Washington hopes to tighten international restrictions on North Korea’s banking system, but that Beijing is reluctant to support the measure for fear of worsening conditions in its neighbor and provoking a refugee crisis across its borders. China is responsible for about 70% of North Korea’s trade volume, according to Seoul. “There will eventually be a sanctions resolution,” the diplomat said. “China wants any steps to be measured but it wants the council to send a clear message to DPRK that it must comply with council resolutions.” China expressed regret and concern over Sunday’s rocket launch, which employed ballistic missile technology. China is North Korea’s main ally but, like most of other nations, disapproves of its nuclear weapons program. Speaking to reporters ahead of the closed-door session, France’s UN ambassador, François Delattre, described North Korea’s launch as an “outrageous provocation”. British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said on Sunday he had spoken with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, and they had agreed the council should take strong action. On Saturday, North Korea abruptly changed its launch window for an attempted satellite launch, and did not inform international organizations of any other changes of its plan, said South Korean defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun. The launch came just weeks after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. Outside experts and officials say that each nuclear test and long-range missile launch brings the North closer to creating a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on an intercontinental missile capable of reaching targets as far as the US west coast. Following the announcement that the launch window had been moved, Japan set up an emergency response desk to monitor the launch. Japan had already deployed Patriot missile batteries in Tokyo and on the southern island of Okinawa to shoot down any debris from the rocket that might threaten to fall on its territory. Seoul’s defense ministry said that South Korea and the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in the South as a buttress against any North Korean aggression, are deploying Aegis-equipped destroyers and radar spy planes to track the North Korean rocket after its launch. The South is also prepared to shoot down any rocket or debris that infringes on its territory, the defense ministry said, although security experts believe the country’s Patriot missiles, with an interception range of about nine miles, would be ill-equipped for the job. Thanks for reading.

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