France calls for more European Union sanctions against DPRK after missile test

France on Saturday called on the European Union to unilaterally adopt additional sanctions against North Korea if the missile launch was confirmed.

Seoul's foreign ministry said South Korea strongly condemned North Korea's test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on Saturday in eastern waters off the coastal town of Sinpo, Xinhua news agency reported.

"We closely monitor North Korean activities and the situation on the Korean peninsula, especially North Korean military activities", US State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

In response to Ri's remarks, a U.S. State Department official defended the military exercises as demonstrating the U.S. commitment to its alliance with the South and said they enhance the combat readiness, flexibility and capabilities of the alliance.

Some experts, however, think the North has fired missiles from submerged platforms, rather than from submarines.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff says the projectile, presumed to a submarine-launched ballistic missile, was sacked from near Shinpo, Hamgyeongnam-do province, on Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m, South Korea time. But another US official noted that after previous launch attempts by Pyongyang that didn't appear to be successful, this one seems to have gone much better.

South Korea has warned of tougher sanctions on the DPRK if the country tests another nuclear device.

Korea's foreign minister asserted that it was the U.S. that had pushed the North to develop nuclear weapons as a self-defense strategy, adding that the only thing that could dissuade the country from carrying out its tests, would be for the USA to halt its military exercises with Seoul. He also said the North won't be intimidated by worldwide sanctions.

"We are keeping close tabs on the North Korean military and maintaining a full defence posture", he said.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a rocket launch a month later that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

A U.S. defense official said April 14 that U.S. Strategic Command systems detected and tracked an attempted North Korean missile launch, but there was "no evidence the missile reached flight", a U.S. official told Starr.

Citing South Korea's military authorities, local broadcaster SBS reported that most of vehicles and equipment had been withdrawn from the DPRK's main nuclear test site at Punggye-ri in the country's northeastern region where Pyongyang conducted all of its four nuclear tests.

North Korea has recently sent a barrage of missiles and artillery shells into the sea amid ongoing annual military drills between the United States and South Korea.

Darusman has been very outspoken about human rights abuses in the North and suggested regime change might be the only solution - a position that has made him persona non grata in Pyongyang. The 7th party congress would be the first such event since 1980.

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