A rocket carrying a Malligyong-1 spy satellite is fired, the North Korean government claims, from a location indicated as North Gyeongsang Province in North Korea in this handout image obtained by Portal on November 21, 2023. KCNA via Portal/File Photo Acquire LICENSING RIGHTS
SEOUL, Nov 27 (Portal) – North Korea warned on Monday it would continue to exercise its sovereign rights, including through satellite launches, while its troops reportedly restored some destroyed guard posts on the border with South Korea.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the launch of a reconnaissance satellite last week was due to the need to monitor the United States and its allies, state media KCNA reported.
“It is a legal and equitable way to exercise one’s right to defend oneself and to fully respond to and closely monitor the serious military actions of the United States and its supporters,” the KCNA report said.
Nuclear-armed North Korea launched the satellite on Tuesday, saying it had successfully entered orbit and sent photos, but South Korean defense officials and analysts said its capabilities had not been independently verified.
The launch prompted South Korea to suspend a key clause of a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement and resume air surveillance near the border.
North Korea, in turn, said it was no longer bound by the agreement and would station weapons on its border with the South.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korean soldiers were seen returning heavy weapons to the border of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and setting up guard posts that the two countries had demolished as part of the deal.
South Korea estimates that the North had about 160 guard posts along the DMZ and the South had 60. Each side destroyed 11 of them after a military deal was signed in 2018 aimed at de-escalating tensions and preventing accidental military clashes.
Armed North Korean soldiers have been seen restoring damaged guard posts in several locations since Friday, the South Korean Defense Ministry said, citing photos from cameras in the DMZ.
They also placed what appeared to be a recoilless rifle – a portable anti-vehicle weapon or a light artillery piece – at a fort, it said, citing a photo.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the space agency’s control center in Pyongyang again on Monday morning and viewed fresh satellite photos of the U.S. Anderson Air Force Base in Guam and other locations including Rome, KCNA reported.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been briefed on recent North Korean activities and has ordered military preparedness, his office said.
The US called an unscheduled meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday to discuss the North’s satellite launch.
On November 22, nine Security Council members joined the United States in a statement condemning the North’s satellite launch for using ballistic missile technology and calling it a violation of several Security Council resolutions.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the statement only showed how dysfunctional the Security Council has become, with some member states blindly following the United States and issuing meaningless statements.
Two of the permanent members with veto power, China and Russia, have refused to join new Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang even as the country continues to test increasingly powerful ballistic missiles.
They did not join the latest statement last week.
Reporting by Hyunsu Yim, Writing by Jack Kim, Editing by Kim Coghill, Ed Davies and Gerry Doyle
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