North Korea rounded on its critics in dramatic fashion on Thursday, warning that it planned to test-launch more missiles and would resort to ”physical actions” against any country that continued to pressure it to abandon its missile programme. It acknowledged for the first time that it had launched seven missiles on Wednesday in a move that drew immediate condemnation from the US, Japan and Britain and prompted an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. The missiles all landed harmlessly in the Sea of Japan.
In comments reported by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, Pyongyang said the tests were conducted in self-defence, and threatened unspecified measures against states that insisted it abandon the tests.
It called the tests successful, even though a Taepodong-2 missile, capable of reaching the US, splashed down in the Sea of Japan 40 seconds after launch.
”The successful missile test was part of a regular military exercise conducted by our military to boost our self-defence,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying. ”As a sovereign country, this is our legal right and we are not bound by any international law or bilateral or multilateral agreements … if anyone tries to discuss the rights and wrongs about [future tests] and apply pressure, we will be forced to take physical actions of a different nature.”
The statement came after differences emerged among UN Security Council members over how to respond to Wednesday’s launches. United States President George Bush and Japan’s Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, want the council to block the provision of funds, materials and technology for the missile programme. But Russia and China, longtime allies of the communist state, favour a weaker statement that does not mention sanctions.
On Thursday Bush urged a unified response in telephone calls with the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
The White House spokesperson, Tony Snow, said the US and its allies insisted that they would not allow the missile tests to force them into making further concessions to North Korea. ”If they [Pyongyang] think there’s going to be a reward for this kind of activity, they’re wrong. That’s a miscalculation. There’s absolutely no daylight between the negotiating partners on that,” Snow said.
Putin, speaking in a televised webcast, said concern about the launches should not trigger an emotional reaction ”that would drown out common sense”. Hu told Bush that China opposed ”anything that would threaten peace and stability” on the Korean peninsula.
China will attempt to persuade North Korea to return to stalled six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programme, which Pyongyang boycotted in Beijing last November in response to a US crackdown on its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering operations.
Although it condemned the launches, South Korea said there was no change in its policy of rapprochement towards the North. Seoul also warned that three or four North Korean missiles, thought to be short and medium-range, were in position ready for firing. Citing US sources, the NBC television network said the rockets now in place could include a second Taepodong-2, a long-range missile that some experts believe is capable of striking Alaska and the West Coast of the US.
Japan’s defence agency said it would speed up efforts to develop a missile shield with the US to protect it against a possible attack by North Korea. In response to Wednesday’s tests Tokyo barred North Korean officials from entering Japan and banned a North Korean passenger ferry from docking at Japanese ports for six months. – Guardian Unlimited Â