Seoul vows 'concrete' countermeasures against N. Korean rocket

(ATTN: UPDATES with more remarks from the foreign minister, additional details,
background)
By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government vowed to take stern and
concrete steps against North Korea for launching a self-claimed satellite Sunday,
saying the launch is a "clear violation" of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
"While taking every necessary step to counter any types of provocation from North
Korea in the future, the government is taking concrete countermeasures against
the rocket launch through close consultations with the United Nations and related
countries," the South Korean government said in a statement read by Foreign
Minister Yu Myung-hwan in a press conference at the presidential office.
The reaction came shortly after Seoul's presidential office confirmed the
communist nation fired its rocket despite repeated international warnings.
Yu and other security-related ministers and officials have been attending a
National Security Council meeting convened shortly before the North launched its
rocket at 11:30 a.m.
"North Korea's rocket firing is a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1718. Whatever the North's claim is, the launch is a serious
provocation that threatens the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and
Northeast Asia," the statement said.
North Korea is prohibited from any missile-related activities under the U.N.
resolution, adopted in 2006 after Pyongyang conducted its first-ever nuclear
test.
The government statement came after its presidential office Cheong Wa Dae
denounced the launch as a "serious threat" to world peace.
In the statement, Seoul also condemned Pyongyang for spending an enormous sum of
money on a rocket launch while many of its 24 million population still depend on
international handouts to survive.
"Our government and the international community are greatly disappointed by the
fact that North Korea has spent large amounts of money to fire a long-range
rocket when the money could have been used to help relieve its chronic food
shortages," Yu told the nationally-televised press briefing.
North Korea watchers in Seoul estimated that the communist North could have spent
as much as US$500 million on the rocket launch, which Seoul, Washington and other
allies suspect was a disguise for a long-range missile test.
Pyongyang earlier claimed the rocket would carry an experimental communications
satellite, Kwangmyongsong-2.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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