South Korea condemned the plan to launch a North Korean satellite as a “violation” of UN Security Council resolutions and threatened Pyongyang with “suffering” if it decides to launch anyway, the Korean Foreign Ministry said.
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North Korea’s launch of the satellite is a “serious violation of the UN Security Council resolution banning any launches using ballistic missile technology” and “an illegal act that cannot be justified under any pretext,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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“Our government issues a strong warning regarding North Korea’s announcement of an impending provocation that threatens peace in the region and urges the immediate abandonment of its illegal launch plan. If North Korea does launch, it will have to put up with the cost and suffering that this will be followed,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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Earlier it was reported that the DPRK conveyed to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) its intention to launch a satellite between May 31 and June 11 this year. The Department for the Situation in North Korea under the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan collects and analyzes information. The alleged impact sites for the rocket stages are outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone – two in the Yellow Sea southwest of North Korea and one off the Philippines in the eastern Pacific. However, as with the launch of the satellite in February 2016 and December 2012, the rocket with the satellite can fly over the area near Japan’s Sakishima archipelago.
