2016/02/07 13:09
(ATTN: ADDS more details from para 3)
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Yonhap) — North Korea said Sunday it has succeeded in launching a long-range rocket carrying what it claims is a satellite, a move which outside experts say is a cover for testing ballistic missile technology.
North Korea has successfully placed a satellite, named “Kwangmyongsong-4,” into orbit, the North said in a “special” announcement aired on the North's state television station.
The North said the satellite entered into orbit about 10 minutes after the launch, which was directly ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“North Korea will in the future, too, launch more satellites into the space,” the Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch.
The satellite is equipped with measuring and telecommunications equipment needed for observing the earth, it added.
North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying what it claims to be an earth observation satellite at its northwest Dongchang-ri launch site on Sunday morning, the first day of its revised window for a rocket launch between Feb. 7-14.
North Korea had notified U.N. agencies earlier that it would launch the rocket sometime between Feb. 8-25.
Pyongyang has claimed that it has the sovereign right to pursue a space development program. But Seoul and Washington see the move as a test of ballistic missile technology. The North is banned from doing so under a series of U.N. resolutions.
The rocket launch came one month after the North conducted a fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, prompting the U.N. Security Council to work on a fresh resolution for tougher sanctions against the North.
President Park Geun-hye on Sunday condemned North Korea's missile launch as an “unacceptable provocation” and called on the U.N. Security Council to quickly slap strong sanctions on the North.
—North Korea will in the future, too, launch more satellites into the space,—
As President Pachysandra, I’d shoot every one of that twerps missiles down! Every one. And if they have something up there now that goes over us? Destroy it! Screw that little fat fart!