SEOUL: North Korea may launch an intercontinental ballistic missile or take other military action to protest a summit between the United States, South Korea and Japan, a South Korean lawmaker said citing the country’s intelligence agency.
US President Joe Biden will hold a meeting at Camp David today with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, hoping to tighten ties between Seoul and Tokyo amid nuclear threats from North Korea and China’s influence in the region.
North Korea has criticised the deepening military cooperation among the three nations as part of a prelude to the creation of an “Asian version of Nato”.
The reclusive state could also attempt another spy satellite launch at the end of August or early September after failing to put the country’s first such platform into space in May, Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the South Korean parliament, told reporters yesterday after meeting the chief of the National Intelligence Service.
Yoo said there was a chance the North would launch the satellite to celebrate its founding anniversary on Sept 9.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made it a priority to conduct a launch during the second half of this year, Yoo noted.
North Korea and Russia agreed on broad defence cooperation when the Russian defence minister met Kim last month, Yoo quoted South Korean intelligence as saying.
“The National Intelligence Service is anticipating that Russia and North Korea will speed up their defence cooperation and it is closely tracing movements” to spot any possible Russian transfer of nuclear missile technology to Pyongyang, the lawmaker said.
The United States has accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine, which it calls a “special operation”, including artillery shells, shoulder-fired rockets and missiles. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied arms transactions. — Reuters
