North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to take “overwhelmingly stern” actions against South Korea’s show of force in response to the North’s spy satellite launch attempt, denouncing it as a “very dangerous” provocation.
Kim made the remark during his visit to the Academy of Defence Sciences on Tuesday to mark the 60th founding anniversary of the agency, one day after North Korea’s launch of a military spy satellite ended in failure, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North’s leader defended the possession of a spy satellite as an “inevitable” choice to protect its sovereignty and denounced South Korea’s military for demonstrating its show of force against its satellite launch.
South Korea’s military staged an air exercise involving around 20 fighter jets Monday near the border with North Korea, hours after North Korea informed Japan of a plan to launch a satellite by June 4.
The South Korean military “threatened against our exercise of sovereignty with weapons. This is a very dang
erous provocation that cannot be ignored and a play with fire at which we cannot help but being furious,” Kim said.
He vowed to take “absolute and overwhelmingly stern actions” against South Korea’s rash decision to demonstrate a show of force against the North’s satellite launch.
North Korea launched a new rocket carrying a spy satellite, named the Malligyong-1-1, on Monday night. But the rocket exploded during the first-stage flight shortly after takeoff, the North’s state media said.
In November last year, the North successfully placed a military spy satellite into orbit after two failed attempts in May and August, respectively.
Source: Yonhap News Agency