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North Korea triggers fresh outrage with rocket launch

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni noted in a statement that Sunday’s launch comes just one month after North Korea conducted a nuclear test, making for the North’s “latest provocation”.

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Defying a United Nations ban on testing ballistic-missile technology, North Korea said it put a satellite into space from a multistage rocket launched about 9 a.m. local time Sunday.

The United States, China, Japan, South Korea, France and Russian Federation have condemned the satellite launch by Pyongyang.

“North Korea’s missile test is a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile and yet another demonstration of the malign ambitions of the regime in Pyongyang”.

“Everything we have seen is consistent with a successful repeat of the 2012 (launch)”, said USA missile technology expert John Schilling.

The launch followed Pyongyang’s nuclear test on January 6. Leader Kim Jong Un ordered and directed the launch.

“Countries, when pursuing their own security, should take into account others’ security interests as well as regional peace and stability”, the statement said.

North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse its government. South Korea and its allies consider it to be a potential missile test.

Ken Todorov, a retired brigadier general and former deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, told Reuters that North Korea had advanced its capabilities with the latest launch.

“We urge North Korea to fully comply with its obligations under the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions without delay”, the statement said.

“We condemn today’s launch and North Korea’s determination to prioritize its missile and nuclear weapons programs over the well-being of its people, whose struggles only intensify with North Korea’s diversion of scarce resources to such destabilizing activities”, Rice said. He added that he saw, North Korea possessed weaponry that most countries were unaware of.

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The 15-member Security Council described yesterday’s launch as an “intolerable provocation” and said it planned to implement fresh sanctions on the rogue state. Samantha Power, left, the U.S. Ambassador, and South Korean Ambassador Oh Joon, listen to his comments. The UN’s most powerful body pledged to quickly adopt a new resolution with “significant” new sanctions.

N Korea defies warnings