(Newswire.net — February 8, 2016) — United States Strategic Command detected the projectile when it entered into space. Officials from the South Korean army said that the rocket sent an object into orbit, which disproved initial media claims that North Korea’s satellite launch failed.
Pyongyang’s officials said that they had successfully launched Kwangmyongsong-4, a satellite from the Sohae Space Center at 9 a.m, Sunday local time. They added that the satellite orbits the Earth every 94 minutes.
The satellite launch was ordered by the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The U.N. Security Council has called an emergency meeting, at the request of the US, Japan and South Korea. The United States immediately condemned this action calling it destabilizing and provocative, reports CNN.
North Korean state television released a video in which you can see white rockets taking off into space, and Kim Jong-un, surrounded by military officials in the command center during a celebration of the successful launch.
In 2012, North Korea launched a long range missile which took a communications satellite into orbit, but no radio signal from the satellite was ever detected.
This time, North Korea had informed international agencies that it plans to launch a rocket with a satellite between the 8th and 25th of February, but yesterday, suddenly moved the dates up between the 7th and 14th of February.
Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg condemned the North Korean long-range rocket launch and called it a drastic violation of five U.N. Security Council resolutions. Stoltenberg demanded from Pyongyang to respect the international laws.
“This launch is in direct violation of five United Nations Security Council Resolutions, which repeatedly call for North Korea to suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program, to re-establish its pre-existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching and not to conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology,” he said in a statement, according to the Reuters.
Russia has also strongly condemned Pyongyang’s rocket launch, saying that it is a heavy shock to the regional security, including the security of North Korea itself.
United States Secretary of State John Kerry said the US will cooperate with the U.N. Security Council on taking significant measures to hold North Korea to take responsibility for today’s launch.