UN condemns rocket launch, North Korea defiant

Seoul: A day after a United Nations resolution condemned North Korea’s ballistic missile launch, defiant North Korea reportedly lashed back saying that it will strengthen its military defenses.

On Wednesday, a resolution calling Pyongyang's recent rocket launch as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity was adopted in UNSC . Soon after, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued the statement stating the country will enhance its nuclear capabilities, as per agency report.

The Foreign Ministry called the launch a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space rather than a test of long-range missile technology. It said North Korea "should counter the US hostile policy with strength, not with words."

The statement ominously warned that North Korea will "bolster the military capabilities for self-defense including the nuclear deterrence."

The wording "considerably and strongly hints at the possibility of a nuclear test," analyst Hong Hyun-ik at the private Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul said Wednesday.

The Security Council on Tuesday reiterated a demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons program in a "complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," and ordered the regime to cease rocket launches.

"Today's resolution also makes clear that if North Korea chooses again to defy the international community, such as by conducting another launch or a nuclear test, then the (Security) Council will take significant action," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said.

The binding resolution is the first in four years to expand sanctions against Pyongyang. It ordered the freeze of more North Korean assets, including the space agency, and imposed a travel ban on four more officials — limited sanctions that target individuals and specific companies.

"We believe that action taken by the Council should be prudent, measured, proportionate and conducive to stability," Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong said after the vote.

Since North Korea successfully launched a ballistic missile in December, there has been growing concern that the regime of Kim Jong-un would follow that triumph up with its third nuclear test.


According to some analysts, the intension is to demonstrate that it has the technology both to build a nuclear warhead and the missile system to deliver it to a target.