03 April 2009
U.S. Says North Korean Rocket Launch Would Be Provocative Act
Washington — North Korea should reconsider launching a rocket because a launch would be an unnecessarily provocative act, a senior U.S. diplomat says.
“If it does occur, we will be continuing to work closely with our partners and our allies in the U.N. Security Council,” Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, said.
Bosworth said that if the North Koreans go ahead with a planned launch it will violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that expressly forbids missile launches. “We believe that a defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution is an action that requires that there be some consequences,” he said in an April 3 press briefing at the Washington Foreign Press Center.
President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Financial Summit in London April 1 that they would work to eliminate nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. Both also agreed to work to get the Six-Party Talks, which also include Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, to resume soon.
Negotiations in the six-party process have been directed at getting North Korea to end its nuclear weapons development program in exchange for incentives that include recognition by the United States and a final peace agreement to formally end the 1950–1953 Korean War. The United States has already removed North Korea from its State Sponsors of Terrorism List.
North Korean officials, though, announced recently that between April 4 and 8 North Korea will launch a long-range rocket that is intended to carry a satellite into space. Observers, however, believe it is a test of an advanced Taepodong-2 three-stage rocket with a potential striking range of more than 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers), which puts it in range of the U.S. western coastline, Hawaii, Australia and eastern Europe.
Bosworth said he just returned from consultations in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul, South Korea. While in Seoul, “we consulted with our Russian partners in the six-party process,” he said.
“We also believe quite strongly that all parties concerned, including the North Koreans, have an interest in coming back to the table to complete the discussions and the negotiations on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Bosworth said.
Bosworth said he is prepared to go to North Korean capital Pyongyang “whenever it appears to be useful.” He added that the United States and China have been working closely and productively to get North Korea to withdraw plans for launching a rocket and resume negotiations.
“We share a broad range of common interests with regard to the region, and particularly with regard to North Korea,” he said.
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