Washington (AFP) Feb. 2, 2016 – The United States threatened North Korea Tuesday with “tough” UN Security Council sanctions if it goes through with a planned satellite launch.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) said it had received a shipping warning from North Korea of its intention to launch an earth observation satellite between February 8-25, in what Washington said would be “another egregious violation” of UN Security Council resolutions.
“The North is threatening to move in the wrong direction. It’s the wrong direction from the point of view of the international community,” said Daniel Russel, the assistant US secretary of state for Asia-Pacific affairs.
“North Korea is defying the UN Security Council, it’s defying its (…) neighbor China, it’s defying the international community to the detriment of regional peace and security, and to the detriment of North Korean people itself,” he told a small group of reporters.
“This argues even more strongly for action by the UN Security Council and the international community to impose real consequences for the destabilizing action that the DPRK has taken, is taking, and to raise the cost to the leaders through the imposition of tough additional sanctions.”
Although Pyongyang insists its space program is purely scientific in nature, the United States and its allies insist such launches are aimed at developing an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of striking the US mainland.
UN resolutions forbid the North from any use of ballistic missile technology, and imposed sanctions following its last rocket launch in December 2012.
If the notified launch goes ahead, it would be a further slap in the face of the international community as it struggles to find a united response to the North Korea’s January 6 nuclear test.