This is a chronological update article of the two previous:
Artificial earthquake for major nuclear test, detected in North Korea
Japan Reports North Korea Readying Long-Range Missile Launch “Next Week”
North Korea has finally launched a long-range “missile,” a South Korean defense ministry official said Sunday 7th, an action immediately condemned by the United States and South Korea as “destabilizing and provocative.”
Though North Korea had said it planned to put a satellite into orbit, the launch was viewed by other nations, such as Japan and South Korea, as a front for a ballistic missile test, especially coming on the heels of North Korea’shydrogen bomb test last month.
However, a senior U.S. defense official said the rocket headed toward space and, based on its trajectory, “did not pose a threat to the U.S. or our allies.”
The United States, Japan and South Korea have called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Sunday, a senior U.S. official told CNN. The South Korean national security council held an emergency meeting in response to the launch, the South Korean President’s office said.
North Korea’s state-run TV said it will make an important announcement at 12 p.m. Pyongyang time (10:30 p.m. ET). South Korea said the rocket was launched around 9:30 a.m. local time (7:30 p.m. ET) and headed south. The U.S. official said it headed toward the Yellow Sea.
‘A major provocation’
U.S. officials and South Korean leaders immediately criticized the rocket launch.
“This is the second time in just over a month that the DPRK has chosen to conduct a major provocation, threatening not only the security of the Korean peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said, “North Korea’s launch using ballistic missile technology, following so closely after its January 6 nuclear test, represents yet another destabilizing and provocative action and is a flagrant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch a “challenge to world peace.” She said in a televised address that South Korean officials “don’t know when North Korea is going to do another provocative action, so our government needs to come up with a plan to protect the safety of our people.”
Japan lodged a strong protest against North Korea through diplomatic channels, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference. Japan’s analysis of the launch indicated parts the rocket fell into four locations offshore after takeoff, the Japanese Prime Minister’s office said Sunday via Twitter.
One location is 150 kilometers west of the Korean peninsula in the Yellow Sea, two other locations are southwest of the Korean peninsula in the East China Sea and a fourth location is about 2,000 kilometers south of Japan in the Pacific Ocean, according to the Prime Minister’s office.
Source: CNN