North Korea says sanctions not able to stop its missile development program, slams Japan’s security strategy
North Korea has strongly criticized both the South and Japan for respectively trying to impose fresh sanctions on Pyongyang to stop its weapons development program and adopting a threatening military strategy.
Addressing the South on Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, vowed that additional sanctions would not stop her country’s missile development program.
South Korea would “try hard to impose additional sanctions on us,” she said in a strongly-worded statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday.
“But with our right to survival and development being threatened, why are we afraid of sanctions which we have seen repeatedly so far and is not even the first time, and why would we stop?” she asked.
Kim Yo Jong also asserted that her country’s initiative to develop a surveillance satellite was a “pressing priority directly linked to our security.”
The remarks came two days after the North said had conducted an “important, final phase” test for the development of a surveillance satellite on Sunday.
According to the KCNA, North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) carried out the test at its Sohae satellite launching station in the northwest to review its satellite imaging and data transmission capability as well as ground control systems.
“We confirmed important technical indicators such as camera operating technology in the space environment, data processing and transmission ability of the communication devices, [as well as] tracking and control accuracy of the ground control system,” a NADA spokesperson said in the KCNA dispatch.
“Japan’s new security strategy changing regional security environment”
Separately on Tuesday, the North denounced Japan’s new security strategy for what it called fundamentally changing the security environment in the region, warning that it will show with action how “wrong” and “dangerous” Japan’s choice has been.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson made the remarks in a statement carried by KCNA, days after Japan unveiled its biggest military build-up since World War Two.
“Japan is bringing a serious security crisis on the Korean Peninsula and in the East Asia region by adopting a new security strategy that effectively acknowledges its preemptive strike capabilities against other countries,” the official said, denouncing the move as a violation of the UN Charter and a “serious challenge” to international peace.
We make it clear once again that we have the right to take bold and decisive military measures to protect our fundamental rights … in response to the complicated regional security environment,” the official said, warning, “Japan will soon learn with a shudder it has made a clearly wrong and very dangerous choice.”
“We will continue to demonstrate through practical actions how much we are concerned and displeased with Japan’s unjust and greedy attempts to realize its ambitions,” the official said.
The spokesperson also slammed the United States for “exalting and instigating Japan’s rearmament and re-invasion plan,” saying Washington had no right to raise issue with Pyongyang’s efforts to bolster North Korea’s defense.
Tokyo’s five-year plan is expected to turn the country into the world’s third-biggest military spender after the United States and China, based on current budgets.
