When asked about Monday’s statement a US State Department spokesman said any satellite launch by the North using ballistic missile technology would be a “clear violation” of the security council resolutions but would not be drawn on speculation about “possible provocative actions by the DPRK”.
A spokesman for the US defence department, Commander Bill Urban, declined to comment specifically on Poling’s assessment but repeated US calls for a halt to land reclamation, construction and militarisation of South China Sea outposts to “ease tensions and create space for diplomatic solutions”.
“Clearly what we have seen is going to be a 3,000-metre airstrip and we have seen some more work on what is clearly going to be some port facilities for ships,” he said.
Japan urged North Korea on Tuesday to refrain from taking provocative action and said Japan would continue to co-operate with the United States and South Korea. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman, told a news conference that North Korea should comply with UN security council resolutions.
Asked about Mischief Reef on Monday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei repeated China’s claim to “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly Islands and its right to establish military facilities there.
The photographs taken for Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) thinktank on 8 September are said to show construction on Mischief Reef, one of several artificial islands China has created in the Spratly archipelago.
