Barack Obama And Shinzo Abe Back UN Resolution On North Korea

South Koreans watch a TV news program with file footage of North Korea’s rocket-launch plans, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, February 3, 2016.

The 15-member Security Council described yesterday’s launch as an “intolerable provocation” and said it planned to implement fresh sanctions on the rogue state.

North Korea said it launched a satellite for peaceful purposes, but the US and allies say it was a ballistic missile test that threatens the USA and ally South Korea.

The country’s state news agency carried a still picture of a white rocket, which closely resembled a previously launched rocket, lifting off. Another showed Kim surrounded by cheering military officials at what appeared to be a command center.

North Korea put a satellite or some other space device into orbit at the launch, USA officials said on Monday.

South Korea and the United States have agreed to begin negotiations for the deployment of an advanced American air defense system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, on South Korean soil, they said.

“Without getting into a timeline, we’d like to see this move as quickly as possible”, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

Answering a question on whether THAAD system may also be looking in to China, Cook said: “It’s going to be focused on the threat posed by North Korea”.

The North Korean rocket launch was widely condemned as another step towards an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

(KOREAN) “North Korea should understand that its obsession with nuclear development will lead to the regime’s collapse”.

He set forth an analysis of the recent North Korean test: the three-stage rocket successfully separated all of its three stages before placing the satellite “Kwangmyongsong-4” into orbit.

It is important to remember that North Korea had also conducted a nuclear test last month.

“The National Assembly vows never to tolerate North Korea’s provocative acts and it will make non-partisan cooperation in creating countermeasures”, it said.

Cook declined to state when exactly the US and South Korea would move forward with the talks.