N. Korea defies world with launch of long-range rocket
South Korean leader condemns ‘ intolerable provocation’
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea earlier today defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland.
The rocket was fired from North Korea’s west coast and its path was tracked separately by the United States, Japan and South Korea; no damage from debris was reported. At an emergency national security council meeting in Seoul, the country’s president called the firing an “intolerable provocation.”
North Korea, which calls its launches part of a peaceful space program, trumpeted the beauty of the launch’s “fascinating vapor” as the rocket cut through the clear blue sky and said it had successfully put a new Earth observation satellite, the Kwangmyongsong 4, or Shining Star 4, into orbit less than 10 minutes after liftoff. It vowed more such launches. A U.S. official said it might take days to assess whether the launch was a success.
The firing came about two hours after an eight-day launch window opened early today. It follows North Korea’s widely disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb.
Washington and its allies will consider it a further provocation and push for more tough sanctions.
The United States and Japan quickly requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council today, saying Pyongyang violated a council ban on ballistic missile launches.
North Korean rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North’s ultimate goal of a nuclear armed long-range missile arsenal. North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse Kim’s government.
North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration, in typical propaganda-laden language, said today that ruling Workers’ Party policies were responsible for the rocket’s success.
The statement praised “the fascinating vapor of Juche satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February on the threshold of the Day of the Shining Star.” Juche is a North Korean philosophy focusing on self-reliance; the Day of the Shining Star refers to the Feb. 16 birthday of former dictator Kim Jong Il.
North Korea has previously staged rocket launches to mark important anniversaries.
Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer detected the North Korean launch at 9:31 a.m. The rocket’s first stage fell off North Korea’s west coast at 9:32 a.m. and the rocket disappeared from South Korean radars at 9:36 a.m. off the southwestern coast.
There was no reported damage in South Korea.
The South Korean government couldn’t immediately confirm reports by Yonhap news agency and YTN TV that the rocket might have failed.