2nd LD) Seoul vows 'concrete' countermeasures against N. Korean rocket

((ATTN: COMBINES previous stories; UPDATES with additional information)
By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government vowed Sunday to take stern
and concrete steps against North Korea for launching what it claims is a
satellite, saying the launch is a "clear violation" of U.N. Security Council
resolutions.
"While taking every necessary step to counter any type 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.
"The government will take firm and stern countermeasures against the North's
provocation," Lee Dong-kwan, a spokesman for the presidential office Cheong Wa
Dae, said in an earlier press conference, calling the launch a "serious threat"
to world peace.
"But we will also wait with patience and consistency for North Korea to change,"
the spokesman said.
President Lee Myung-bak ordered the police and military to closely monitor the
North for possible future provocations, according to the Cheong Wa Dae spokesman.
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 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.
In the statement, Seoul also condemned Pyongyang for spending an enormous sum of
money on a rocket launch while 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 estimate the communist North could have spent as
much as US$500 million on the rocket launch, pointing to a previous remark by
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il that the country had spent some $200 million to
$300 million in 1998 for its first launch of what it called the Kwangmyongsong-1
satellite.
Pyongyang earlier claimed the latest rocket would carry an experimental
communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-2, but Seoul, Washington and other
allies suspect it was a disguise for a long-range missile test.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday (Seoul time) pledged to bring the issue to
the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
bdk@yna.co.kr