North Korea warned on Monday it would continue to launch satellites while its troops were rebuilding some demolished security posts on the border with South Korea, Reuters reported.
The Foreign Office stated that last week’s launch of the reconnaissance satellite was motivated by the need to monitor the United States and its allies.
It is a legal and just way to exercise its right to defend itself and thoroughly respond to and precisely monitor the serious military action by the US and its followers.
North Korea announced on Tuesday that the satellite had successfully entered orbit and transmitted photos, but South Korean defence officials and analysts claimed its capabilities had not been verified independently. The launch, however, prompted South Korea to suspend a key clause of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement and resume aerial surveillance close to the border.
For its part, North Korea declared it was no longer bound by the agreement and would deploy weapons on the border with the South. According to South Korea’s Defence Ministry, North Korean troops were seen returning heavy weapons to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) border and erecting guard posts previously demolished under the agreement.
Since the signing of the military agreement in 2018, each side has demolished 11 guard posts along the demilitarised zone. South Korea estimates that the North had about 160 guard posts, while the South had 60.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un revisited the space agency’s control centre in Pyongyang on Monday morning and reviewed fresh satellite photos of the US Anderson Air Force Base in Guam and other places including Rome, North Korean media reported.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was briefed on North Korea’s latest actions and ordered military preparedness, his office reported. The United States called an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday to discuss North Korea’s satellite launch.
On 22 November, nine Security Council members joined the United States in a statement condemning North Korea’s satellite launch for using ballistic missile technology, calling it a violation of numerous Security Council resolutions.
In response, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry argued that the statement only showed how non-functional the Security Council had become, with some member states blindly following the United States.
Two of the veto-wielding permanent members, China and Russia, refused to join any new Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang.
