Seoul, May 31, (dpa/GNA) – The US government has strongly condemned North Korea’s launch of a multi-stage rocket, using ballistic missile technology.
“This claimed space launch involved technologies that are directly related to the [North Korean] intercontinental ballistic missile program,” the spokesman for the White House’s National Security Committee, Adam Hodge, said in a statement.
“The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and instead choose engagement,” Hodge said.
The launch of what North Korea claims was a satellite increases tensions in the region and could destabilize the security situation, “is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond,” the statement continued.
Hodge said that Washington would “take all necessary measures to ensure the security” of the US, South Korea and Japan.
According to the South Korean military, Pyongyang fired a multi-stage rocket in a southerly direction.
GNA