SEOUL, South Korea — The Politburo of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party has called for the continued testing of long-range rockets despite the condemnation of previous tests by the United Nations Security Council, the country’s official media reported Tuesday.
In a meeting on Monday, the Politburo, the main decision-making body of the party, said that more rocket tests could be an appropriate way to celebrate the 65th anniversary of North Korea’s founding and the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
North Korea declared itself as an independent state on Sept. 9, 1948, three years after the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese colonial rule. It also marks July 27, the day when the truce was signed 60 years ago to end the Korean War. North Korea celebrates those dates each year with hostile statements directed at countries it considers its enemies, as well as with festivities aimed at increasing domestic support for its top leaders.
The Monday meeting was the first time the Politburo had convened since July 2012, when it decided to dismiss Ri Yong-ho, a senior army general. That dismissal turned out to be the beginning of a round of political purges under the new supreme leader, Kim Jong-un.
The 10-point decision adopted at the meeting on Monday called for a huge military parade in Pyongyang, the capital, to mark the anniversary of the July 27 truce, as well as the construction of an international tourism complex in Wonsan, a port on the central eastern coast of North Korea. The Politburo also called for South Korea to fulfill promises to make large investments in the North, which were part of agreements reached in 2000 and 2007.
But the statement did not mention the nuclear test that North Korea has recently threatened to carry out. Officials in South Korea say that enough preparations have been made at a nuclear test site in northeastern North Korea that a test could happen at any time.
The Politburo decision “stressed continuing to launch Kwangmyongsong-class satellites and powerful long-range rockets,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported in its Tuesday dispatch, adding that North Korea should mark the two anniversaries this year with “new achievements for strengthening national defense.”
North Korea launched a rocket on Dec. 12, putting its Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite into orbit, the first for the impoverished country. Washington and its allies said that the rocket launching was a cover for North Korea to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach North America. The Security Council condemned the launching as a violation of its earlier resolutions that banned the North from testing technology used for ballistic missiles, and last month it adopted another resolution ordering the tightening of sanctions against North Korea.
North Korea has since issued a series of statements threatening more rocket and nuclear tests. The country conducted an underground nuclear test in 2006 and again in 2009.
The Politburo is the center of power in the Workers’ Party. Its Presidium consists of Mr. Kim, who is the top party secretary, and other leaders loyal to him.
North Korea Promises to Test More Rockets
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