According to the North Korean state press, the launch of Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite was a “complete success,” with the satellite put into a a polar orbit, circling the Earth every 94 minutes.
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Analysts have disputed whether the action did in fact involve a hydrogen bomb, but diplomats said that incident, together with the recent rocket launch, are advancing North Korea’s nuclear program. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un signed an order on the launch on Saturday, February 6.
“The Republic of Korea and the US assesses that North Korea’s nuclear test and its long-range missile test is a severe threat against peace and stability of Republic of Korea and Asia Pacific Region”.
“The U.S., Japan and South Korea have requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday”.
North Korea last fired a long-range rocket in 2012 to put, what it said was, a communications satellite into orbit.
Council Resolutions 1718 (2006) and 1874 (2008) prohibit North Korea from testing ballistic missile technology. For South Korea’s president, and other world leaders, it was a banned test of unsafe ballistic missile technology and yet another “intolerable provocation’.’ The rocket’s path was tracked separately by the United States, Japan and South Korea”. North Korea on Sunday defied worldwide warnings and launche…
North Korea has publicly displayed two versions of a ballistic missile that might be capable of hitting the US West Coast, but it isn’t clear if the rockets will work.
Standing alongside her Japanese and South Korean counterparts, US Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters: ‘We will ensure that the Security Council imposes serious consequences.
In line with this dedication and the gravity of this most up-to-date violation, the members of the Security Council will undertake expeditiously a brand new Security Council decision with such measures in response to those harmful and critical violations, the assertion stated.
The North insists its space programme is purely scientific in nature, but the USA and allies, including South Korea, say its rocket launches are aimed at developing an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States mainland. They said that, in the coming days and weeks, Beijing and Washington would continue bilateral discussions on the outline of a new resolution to expand existing United Nations sanctions on North Korea.
China, however, is unlikely to join any call by the US and South Korea to tighten sanctions against North Korea. Instead, it has said its space launches are strictly for peaceful purposes.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the launch “totally unacceptable”. “So it becomes a global issue”, said Kwon Sejin, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. It was North Korea’s fourth nuclear check.
