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| South Korean Ambassador to the United States Cho Hyun-dong speaks while meeting with reporters in Washington, May 31. Yonhap |
North Korea's failed launch of a spy satellite has violated United Nations Security Council resolutions and the country will face corresponding consequences, South Korea's ambassador to the United States said Wednesday.
Amb. Cho Hyun-dong also insisted that the North's provocative actions will only lead to further isolation.
"North Korea has said it will conduct a second launch, but any such launch will carry a due price," Cho said while meeting with reporters in Washington.
North Korea launched what it claimed to be its first military reconnaissance satellite on Wednesday morning (Korea time). The satellite fell into the Yellow Sea after what Pyongyang called an "abnormal" flight of its space launch vehicle.
"South Korea and the United States communicated at various levels of government immediately after the launch. The two governments issued a message condemning North Korea's launch," said Cho, adding, "North Korea's launch only worsens its isolation while strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance."
In a prebuttal of North Korea's planned launch, the U.S. has said the firing of a space launch vehicle (SLV) would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit the North's use of any ballistic missile technology by Pyongyang.
"Any DPRK launch that uses ballistic missile technology, which would include SLVs used to launch a satellite into space, violates multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions," a state department spokesperson said earlier, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
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| A group of students on a school trip checks an emergency alert on their smartphones, which urged Seoul residents to take shelter, at Seoul Station in the capital, May 31. Yonhap |
The North's satellite launch came about a month after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to strengthen U.S. extended deterrence at a summit held in Washington.
The agreement, dubbed the "Washington Declaration", followed unprecedented missile provocations by North Korea, which fired some 80 ballistic missiles since the start of last year.
The South Korean ambassador insisted that Yoon's bilateral summit with Biden has revitalized the decades-old alliance.
"President Yoon's state visit revitalized the meaning of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and provided a blueprint for the future of the alliance,' Cho told reporters.
"President Yoon also successfully worked as South Korea's first salesperson," he added, referring to large investment pledges made to South Korea by leading U.S. firms, including Netflix, during Yoon's visit here. (Yonhap)
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