Obama leads global condemnation; Security Council to meet Monday
SEOUL/TOKYO – BRUSHING aside warnings from the international community, North Korea launched a long-range rocket yesterday, putting another wrinkle into efforts to denuclearise the North and raising tensions in the region.
The rocket hurtled over Japan within seven minutes of liftoff at 11.20am local time from the North’s north-east coast.
For some tense moments, Japan’s military, which had been given authority to shoot down any threat to its soil, watched the rocket fly through its territory. North Korea had warned that any attempt to block its launch or intercept the rocket would be tantamount to war.
The rocket traced out its predicted flight path, dumping its first stage booster – the engine – into the ocean 280km west of Japan, and its second booster 1,270km in the Pacific Ocean east of the Japanese coast.
Four hours after the launch, Pyongyang declared it a success.
‘The satellite is orbiting Earth and transmitting the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans Song Of General Kim Il Sung and Song Of General Kim Jong Il, as well as measurement data back to Earth,’ the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, referring to praise music for North Korea’s late founder and his son, its current leader.
But the US military said that no object entered orbit. The final two stages of the rocket and its payload – the part carrying the satellite – landed in the Pacific Ocean, according to North American Aerospace Defence Command and US Northern Command officials.
Words Must Mean Something
- this means either the N.Korea knew about it’s satellite failure but success on testing the range if a longer range missile.
Cloak and dagger scenairo here, even the press dare not leak any information if the missile was shot down or not.
The problems is KoRea had threaten war if the ‘Satelite’ is shot down.
Obama had just got his first taste of serious threat of global poportion, what will he and his advisors decide to do to punish north Korea?
Does it means more economic sanctions which obviously did not work previously or international condemation or military actions?
Time will tell…
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