US Official Says Will Respond Forcefully If N.Korea Holds Nuclear Test

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman speaks to media after a meeting with South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP)
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman speaks to media after a meeting with South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP)
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US Official Says Will Respond Forcefully If N.Korea Holds Nuclear Test

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman speaks to media after a meeting with South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP)
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman speaks to media after a meeting with South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP)

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Tuesday there would be a strong and clear response from the United States, South Korea and the world if North Korea were to conduct a nuclear test.

"Any nuclear test would be in complete violation of UN Security Council resolutions (and) there would be a swift and forceful response to such a test ... I believe that not only ROK and United States and Japan but the entire world will respond in a strong and clear manner," she told a news conference after talks with her South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun-dong, in Seoul. ROK is the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.

"We are prepared and ... we will continue our trilateral discussion (with South Korea and Japan) tomorrow," Sherman added.

Her remarks come after South Korea and US forces fired eight surface-to-surface missiles early on Monday off South Korea's east coast in response to a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Sunday.

US and South Korean government authorities and North Korean experts have been saying for weeks that there are signs of new construction at Punggye-ri, North Korea's only known nuclear test site, and that Pyongyang could soon test a bomb. The North has not tested a nuclear bomb since 2017. The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi on Monday said North Korean building work expanding key facilities at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon is advancing.

Reclusive North Korea has been suffering from its first-ever outbreak of COVID-19 in the past month, with the country reporting a total 4,198,890 people with fever symptoms as of Monday. North Korea has not confirmed the total number of people testing positive for the coronavirus, with experts saying the announced figures could be under-reported.

Pyongyang has so far refused any help offered by Washington and Seoul, even as the World Health Organization says the COVID-19 situation there is getting worse.

"The ROK and the United States and others have offered humanitarian response that has yet to be accepted but we hope that (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un will be focused on helping his people to meet this challenge of COVID-19 which we have all faced and will return to the negotiating table are rather than taking provocative and dangerous and destabilizing actions," Sherman said.



Iran Media: Russian Rocket Puts Iran Satellite into Space

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying two Ionosfera-M satellites and 18 payloads, including Iran's Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite, blasts off from its launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far-eastern Amur region, Russia July 25, 2025. Roscosmos/Ivan Timoshenko/Handout via REUTERS
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying two Ionosfera-M satellites and 18 payloads, including Iran's Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite, blasts off from its launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far-eastern Amur region, Russia July 25, 2025. Roscosmos/Ivan Timoshenko/Handout via REUTERS
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Iran Media: Russian Rocket Puts Iran Satellite into Space

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying two Ionosfera-M satellites and 18 payloads, including Iran's Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite, blasts off from its launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far-eastern Amur region, Russia July 25, 2025. Roscosmos/Ivan Timoshenko/Handout via REUTERS
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying two Ionosfera-M satellites and 18 payloads, including Iran's Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite, blasts off from its launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far-eastern Amur region, Russia July 25, 2025. Roscosmos/Ivan Timoshenko/Handout via REUTERS

A Russian rocket put an Iranian communications satellite into space on Friday, Iranian state media reported, the latest achievement for an aerospace program that has long concerned Western governments.

"The Nahid-2 communications satellite was launched from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome using a Soyuz rocket," state television said.

Weighing 110 kilograms (over 240 pounds), the satellite was designed and manufactured by Iranian engineers, the broadcaster added.

Western governments have long expressed concern that technological advances made in Iran's space program can also be used to upgrade its ballistic missile arsenal, AFP reported.

The launch was announced shortly before nuclear talks between Iran and Britain, France and Germany opened in Istanbul.

In December, Iran announced it had put its heaviest payload to date into space, using a domestically manufactured satellite carrier.

In September, Iran said it had put the Chamran-1 research satellite into orbit using the Ghaem-100 carrier, which is produced by the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division.