North Korea launched in the early hours of Sunday a long-range rocket that carries what Pyongyang says is a satellite, but the international community fears it is a new ballistic missile and a violation of U.N. sanctions banning the country from such military technology.
The launch of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, named after late leader Kim Jong Il, took place at 9 a.m (local time) from its northwest Dongchang-ri launch site. North Korean authorities said the launch was a “complete success” and that it was making a polar orbit of the earth every 94 minutes.
The U.S. Strategic Command said it had detected the missile entering space.
The launch takes place a month after the North Korean state television announced the successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb.
A few days ago, North Korea warned the U.N. it intended to launch a rocket to carry a satellite sometime between February 8-25.
On Friday, in a telephone conversation later released by the White House, the Chinese president Xi Jinping and U.S. president Barack Obama agreed that North Korea’s test of a ballistic missile would represent “another provocative and destabilizing action.” The two leaders stressed the “importance of a strong and united international response to provocations” from Pyongyang, “including through an impactful U.N. Security Council Resolution.”
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the country’s government to halt its provocative actions and comply with international obligations.
“It is deeply deplorable that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has conducted a launch using ballistic missile technology in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions,” he added.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement, “This is the second time in just over a month that the DPRK has chosen to conduct a major provocation, threatening not only the security of the Korean peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well.”
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said it was an unforgivable act of provocation while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has condemned the launch as being an “absolutely intolerable.”
The U.S., Japan and South Korea requested an emergency meeting Sunday of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the rocket launch.