India expresses concern over North Korea launching long-range rocket

U.S. Strategic Command on Monday said it continued to track two objects put into orbit by North Korea, the rocket payload or satellite, and the rocket body.

To the South Korean ambassador, Kim Jang-soo, Liu expressed the country’s “solemn position” about the possible deployment of the USA missile defense system.

This week, the top USA military commander will discuss North Korea’s latest satellite launch with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts as part of efforts to strengthen military ties between the three countries, US defence officials said on Monday.

Park shared a view in her respective phone calls with Obama and Abe that the DPRK’s recent rocket launch and nuclear test violated UN Security Council resolutions and represented a significant threat to the global society, according to Park’s office.

Sunday’s launch came weeks after North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test. Both acts violate existing United Nations Security Council resolutions.

North Korea has claimed it successfully launched a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket from the Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County, North Phyongan province.

China firmly opposes the deployment of the anti-missile hardware so close to its borders, but Cook said the THAAD system was in no way meant to pose a threat to the Asian giant.

The THAAD system, in service since 2008, comprises truck-mounted launchers, radars, interceptor missiles and global communications links. After analyzing the trajectory and the debris of the rocket, Seoul’s Defense Ministry believes North Korea managed to increase its payload weight but it does not have the technology needed for the reentry of a descending warhead into the earth’s atmosphere.

The launch was personally ordered by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who has stated more launches of this kind will happen in the near future.

“Dialogue on the North Korea issue should be reopened”, Xinhua stated, adding China’s rival Japan could use the current crisis as an opportunity to deepen the alliance with the United States and South Korea.

The U.S. Space Surveillance Network reported earlier that North Korea’s KMS-4 satellite was assigned the global identification number 2016-009A.