N Korea defies world, launches rocket Raises Fears Of Disguised Nuclear Missile Test

N Korea defies world, launches rocket

Raises Fears Of Disguised Nuclear Missile Test

Seoul: North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday, days before its young ruler marks 12 months in power, intensifying the threat posed by the nucleararmed state and provoking global condemnation.
    The US and its allies were infuriated and even China expressed “regret” at the successful launch by its wayward communist ally — while also calling on all sides to avoid “stoking the flames”.
    The launch triggered plans for an emergency session of the UN Security Council, which has imposed round after round of sanctions against North Korea over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes, to little avail.
    North Korea insisted the mission was not a banned inter-continental missile test but was designed to place a scientific satellite in orbit, and said it had achieved all its objectives. “The satellite has entered the orbit as planned,” Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement repeated later in a triumphant special broadcast on state television. The US military said the launch appeared to have successfully put an object in orbit.
    Masao Okonogi, a professor of Korean politics at Keio University in Japan, said the launch would thrust North Korea close to the top of Washington’s national security agenda as President Barack Obama prepares for a second term.
    “Putting a satellite into orbit means that you have technology to get a warhead to a targeted area. Now, North Korea is becoming not only a threat to the neighbouring countries but also a real threat to the US,” he said.
    Defying the international uproar, the North vowed more launches. “No matter what others say, we will continue to exercise our legitimate right to launch satellites,” said a foreign ministry spokesman, urging the international community to stay cool “to prevent the situation from developing (in an) undesirable direction”.
    The country’s leader Kim Jong-un was believed to be keen that the launch fall close to the first anniversary of the death of his father and former leader Kim Jong-il on December 17. KCNA hailed it as a “ground-breaking” event that paid tribute to the late Kim’s vision and leadership, and described “enormous joy” and tears of elation from ordinary people.
    Others like Britain said the state, which has suffered intermittent famines in the past two decades, would have been better off spending its meagre resources on its own people. Russia labelled Pyongyang’s defiance of UN resolutions “unacceptable” and warned the launch would have a “negative effect” on regional stability, while the European Union threatened new sanctions.
    The launch took many experts by surprise, coming after they had said North Korea appeared to be running into technical problems caused by the bitter winter weather. AFP