South Korea accused North Korea yesterday of trying to develop a nuclear-armed missile through a satellite launch next month, after Pyongyang dismissed international calls to abandon the exercise.
The US and other nations see the exercise as a thinly veiled long-range missile test
“Our government defines North Korea’s so-called working satellite launch plan as a grave provocation to develop a long-distance delivery means for nuclear weapons by using ballistic missile technology,” said presidential spokesman Park Jeong-Ha.
The North announced on Friday it would launch a long-range rocket between April 12 and 16 to put a satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes.
The US and other nations see the exercise as a thinly veiled long-range missile test, which would breach a UN ban and violate last month’s denuclearisation deal with Washington.
The North is thought to have enough plutonium for perhaps six to eight nuclear weapons, but it is unclear whether it can yet build an atomic warhead for a missile.
The launch is timed to coincide with mass celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding president Kim Il-Sung.
It will come just after an April 11 election in which the South’s ruling conservative party – bitterly opposed by Pyongyang – seeks to retain parliamentary control.
The issue could also overshadow next week’s Seoul nuclear security summit, to be attended by US President Barack Obama and other world leaders.
Seoul said it would work closely with the US, Japan, China, Russia and the European Union to handle the issue during the summit, the biggest-ever diplomatic gathering in the South.
The North on Sunday rejected international protests, calling the criticism “a base move... to encroach upon our sovereignty”. Ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun yesterday blasted Seoul for an “unprecedented policy of sycophancy” towards Washington.
Yesterday official news agency KCNA described Seoul’s accusation over the launch as “an odd smear campaign” and said the satellite “is an issue fundamentally different from that of a long-range missile”.
The launch by the impoverished but nuclear-armed state seems likely to kill off a February 29 agreement with Washington, which had raised hopes of eased tensions under young new leader Kim Jong-Un.
The North agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, along with long-range missile launches and nuclear tests, in return for 240,000 tonnes of much-needed US food aid.
It maintains that a satellite launch is not a missile test.
But the US State Department has called the plan “highly provocative” and voiced strong doubt over providing the food if the launch goes ahead.
Japan, Russia and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have called for a change of heart and even China, the North’s closest ally, expressed concern.