(Reuters) — South Korea said on Wednesday (February 3) North Korea’s announced plan to launch a satellite is really a plan to launch a long-range missile and warned that the North will pay a “severe price” if it goes ahead.
North Korea should immediately call off the planned launch, which is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the South’s presidential Blue House said.
Seoul’s warning came after the North notified U.N. agencies late on Tuesday of its plan to launch what it called an “earth observation satellite” some time between February 8 and 25.
“North Korea’s notice of the plan to launch a long-range missile, coming at a time when there is a discussion for Security Council sanctions on its fourth nuclear test, is a direct challenge to the international community,” said Cho Tae-yong, senior security official at the South Korean presidential office.
“We strongly warn that the North will pay a severe price, if it goes ahead with the long-range missile launch plan, which is a grave threat to peace not only in the Korean peninsula but also this region and around the world,” Cho added.
Pyongyang has said it has a sovereign right to pursue a space programme by launching rockets, although the United States and other governments worry that such launches are missile tests in disguise.
A spokeswoman for the U.N. International Maritime Organization said the agency had been told by North Korea it planned to launch the ‘Kwangmyongsong’ satellite.
The International Telecommunication Union, another U.N. agency, also said Reuters North Korea had informed it on Tuesday (February 2) of plans to launch a satellite with a functional duration of four years in a non-geostationary orbit.
North Korea said the launch would be conducted in the morning one day during the announced period, and notified the co-ordinates for the locations where the rocket boosters and the cover for the payload would drop.
Those locations are expected to be in the Yellow Sea off the Korean peninsula west coast and in the Pacific Ocean to the east of the Philippines, Pyongyang said.
U.S. officials said last week North Korea was believed to be making preparations for a test launch of a long-range rocket, after activity at its test site was observed by satellite.
North Korea last launched a long-range rocket in December 2012, sending an object it described as a communications satellite into orbit.
North Korea also said last month it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb but this was met with scepticism by U.S. and South Korean officials and nuclear experts. They said the blast was too small for it to have been a full-fledged hydrogen bomb.
