The rocket launched from North Korea’s west coast only two hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning, its path tracked separately by the United States, Japan and South Korea.
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Pyongyang said it fired the rocket to place a satellite in orbit – but critics believe the real objective was to test a ballistic missile.
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket, with members considering new sanctions.
North Korea, which calls its launches part of a peaceful space program, 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. Pyongyang said the objective of the satellite would be to monitor the weather and to map the location of natural resources and forests.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch a “challenge to world peace”, while her government announced it would begin talks with the United States to deploy a defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, which can intercept missiles in flight. On Monday, Beijing also criticized the launch as an unnecessary provocation, resulting in meetings with China and South Korea over security measures.
The rationale was a clear necessity to upgrade the defence posture of the South Korea-US military alliance “against North Korea’s advancing threats”, said Yoo Jeh-Seung, Seoul’s deputy defence minister for policy.
The panel also recommended adding drones and related technology to the list of items banned from trade with North Korea and to strengthen measures to prevent specialized training of North Koreans.
“But if anything, it would be China’s implementation of existing sanctions that would tighten the screws on North Korea”.
“We will continue to work closely with global and regional partners to respond appropriately to North Korea’s actions, in an effort to curb this unwarranted, irresponsible and unsafe behaviour”.
“Sanctions have not prevented the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from gradually improving and expanding its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities”, said the experts. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency later backed away, without elaborating, from a report that said the rocket might have failed.
North Korea has said that plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex are in operation.
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According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, Pyongyang has not yet worked out the reentry technology crucial in bringing a launched missile back into the atmosphere, which eliminates the possibility of a successful long-range nuclear bomb launch.
