In North Korea, the launch was met with praise, with the National Aerospace Development Administration, describing “the fascinating vapour of Juche satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky”.
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The launch came as a complete surprise to the global community. Currently South Korea has the ability to detect and track long-range ballistic missiles through its Aegis destroyers. It is an absolute folly.
The council has approved resolutions banning North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology.
Motohide Yoshikawa, center, Japan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks to the media following a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. It is essential for the council to hammer out effective measures.
With backing from China – Pyongyang’s ally – the council again called for significant measures during an emergency meeting held after North Korea said it had put a satellite into orbit with a rocket launch. In 2014 Japan relaxed what were probably the world’s toughest sanctions against the North, after Pyongyang promised to reinvestigate the abductions of Japanese citizens.
North Korea could face further sanctions after launching a long-range rocket, Philip Hammond said, as the Foreign Office summoned Pyongyang’s ambassador in London for a dressing down.
Officials for the International Maritime Organization and the International Telecommunications Union each told CNN that North Korea informed their respective organizations that it intends to launch a satellite. But China and Russian Federation both stressed the importance of finding a diplomatic solution.
China’s lukewarm posture may have bolstered North Korea. China expressed “regret” over the launch, saying North Korea had “ignored universal opposition of the worldwide community”.
It comes just weeks after Pyongyang claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb, despite being under United Nations sanctions since its first nuclear test in 2006. It is obvious that previous sanctions are not sufficient.
Wary of creating a refugee crisis should Kim’s regime collapse, however, it has been unwilling to implement sanctions that would really put a choke on North Korea’s economy.
North Korea’s state news agency carried a still picture of a white rocket that closely resembled a previously launched rocket, lifting off. Another showed Kim surrounded by cheering military officials at what appeared to be a command centre. The smooth transmission of this information was praiseworthy.
It is an important point that Kim has started to ignore warnings from China, on which North Korea relies for imports of crude oil and food.
It is essential to examine the latest series of responses and beef up the crisis-management system for the entire country. There was no reported damage in South Korea. The government should consider in earnest the revival or reinforcement of its own sanctions that were lifted earlier.
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The rocket was 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.
