North Korean rocket launch condemned
The
North Korean Unha-3 rocket is pictured at Tangachai -ri space center
on April 8, 2012 (AFP Photo / Pedro Ugarte )
RT,
12
December, 2012
North
Korea launched a long-range rocket Wednesday morning despite
international opposition and growing tensions in the region. UN has
condemned the successful launch in a statement.
Pyongyang
claimed the Unha-3 rocket successfully delivered a scientific
satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 into orbit.
The
UN Security Council has condemned North Korea’s rocket launch in a
short statement following an emergency meeting, saying that “an
appropriate response” is now being considered.
North
Korea will face “consequences” for the launch, a US spokesman
warned. The White House called the rocket launch a “highly
provocative act that threatens regional security” earlier this
Wednesday.
Seoul
has strongly condemned the launch as a violation of UN resolutions,
with the South Korean president calling for an emergency meeting over
the issue. The launch was confirmed by officials at the South Korean
Defense Ministry and its Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"Shortly
after liftoff, the Aegis radar system in the Yellow Sea detected the
move,"
a senior South Korean military official said, Yonhap news agency
reports.
A man watches a TV screen broadcasting news on North Korea's rocket launch, at a railway station in Seoul on December 12, 2012. (AFP Photo / Jung Yeon-Je)
North
Korea said the Unha-3 rocket delivered the satellite into orbit as
planned.
"The
second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 successfully lifted off
from the Sohae Space Center by carrier rocket Unha-3 on Wednesday,"
the official Korean Central News Agency said. "The satellite
entered its preset orbit."
The
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reported that the
North Korean missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve
orbit, which would fall in line with Pyongyang’s claims about the
nature of the launch.
However
critics believe this could be a ballistic missile test, which the UN
has banned North Korea from conducting.
The
debris of the rocket fell into waters off the Philippines at 10:05
a.m. local time after passing over Okinawa, the Japanese government
said, according to Yonhap. An official in Seoul told the news agency
that the first stage of the North Korean rocket fell in the Yellow
Sea.
The
launch is the means for North Korea to prove they’re not lagging
behind in terms of technology, Eric Sirotkin, lawyer and peacemaker,
told RT.
“They
believe in their sovereignty and speak about it all the time and
consequently they felt that the launch of this missile, if you will,
or the satellite was an effort to show that they are highly
sophisticated technical nation.”
A
Japanese government spokesman protested the launch but urged the
Japanese people to go on with their lives as normal. Japan did not
activate its PAC-3 missile defense system in response.
A worker (C) of one of Japan's major newspapers hands out extra editions reporting a rocket launch by North Korea, on a street in downtown Tokyo on December 12, 2012. (AFP Photo / Kazuhiro Nogi)
Hours
after the launch, Chinese state media urged an early resumption of
the six-nation talks aimed at resolving the conflict over North
Korea's nuclear program.
The
US branded the launch a “highly
provocative act that threatens regional security.”
UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "deplores
the rocket launch," his
spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
Russia’s
Foreign Ministry has voiced “deep
regret” over
the missile launch, saying that North Korea’s move will “have
a negative impact” on
the geopolitical situation in the region.
The
move comes as a surprise as Pyongyang announced Monday it was
extending its launch period for the rocket test by one week to Dec.
29.
Earlier,
the US Navy had sent two additional warships to North Korea to track
and prepare for a possible North Korean rocket launch, bringing the
total number of warships surrounding the Communist state to four.
The
United States and the United Nations have expressed concern that
North Korea may be testing its missile technology to see if it could
be used to eventually strike the US. This is Pyongyang’s second
attempt at such a launch this year. The South Korean government
estimates that Pyongyang spent some $1.3 billion over the year to
conduct the two tests.
“I
am afraid that the United States is going to step back, talk less,
isolate more… And it is really necessary that we not overreact to
this launching of a satellite, but that we say this is a cause and a
reason to sit down finally and put an end to this war,” lawyer
and peacemaker Sirotkin pointed out.
Travellers watch a TV screen broadcasting news about North Korea's rocket launch, at a railway station in Seoul on December 12, 2012. (AFP Photo / Jung Yeon-Je)
India Slams North Korea Rocket Test, Then Launches Their Own
12
December, 2012
The
Indian government has issued a statement condemning
North
Korea for a successful long-range rocket test, which put a satellite
into orbit. Officials termed it “unwarranted” and a threat to
regional stability.
At
roughly the same time, India launched
their own
long-range missile test, firing a nuclear-capable surface to surface
Agni-1 ballistic missile off the Odisha coast.
Officials
gave no indication as to why the firing was timed so closely to the
statement, or indeed any indication that they understood exactly how
hypocritical the launch makes them look on the matter.
North
Korea withdrew from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 2003 and
though it has done some nominally successful detonations is not
believed to have warheads capable of loading onto their missiles.
India, on the other hand, has never been a member of the NPT at all,
and has a significant nuclear arsenal. So far the international
community has not commented on India’s missile test at all, and
appears to busy railing at North Korea.
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