North Korea fires rocket despite warnings

“We condemn today’s launch and North Korea’s determination to prioritize its missile and nuclear weapons programs over the well-being of its people, whose struggles only intensify with North Korea’s diversion of scarce resources to such destabilizing activities”, she added.

This is North Korea’s first long-range rocket launch since December 2012.

U.S. Congressman Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “This latest aggression underscores the importance of enacting my legislation to strengthen targeted sanctions against this brutal regime”.

The UN press office has confirmed an emergency meeting of the Security Council will be held later on Sunday.

The argument is not so much about the precise specifications of the rocket itself, but about North Korea’s real intentions.

Because the North claims the launch as a success, it may think it has increased leverage in diplomatic negotiations and eventually propose talks with the United States and South Korea to try to win concessions, said professor Koh Yu-hwan at Seoul’s Dongguk University.

North Korean rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North’s ultimate goal of a nuclear armed long-range missile arsenal.

Japan had said that it was ready to shoot down the rocket if it had posed a threat to it but did not take any action, Japan’s NHK reported.

The operation “is yet another outright and grave violation of its worldwide obligations, as set out in several UN Security Council Resolutions”, Mogherini said.

Abe ordered his government to quickly analyze the launch and provide information to the nation.

While successful rocket launches will have pushed its ballistic missile programme forward, the North has shown no indication of mastering the re-entry technology needed to deliver a warhead as far as the United States. The meeting was likely to take place on Sunday in NY.

The firing came about two hours after an eight-day launch window opened on Sunday morning. No reason was given for the change. It said the satellite reached its planned location in space in 9 minutes and 46 seconds.

North Korea has said that its fourth nuclear test, on January 6, was of a hydrogen bomb.

In this image released by Japan’s Kyodo News agency, an unidentified object is photographed in the sky from Dandong, China, near the North Korean border, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, at the same time a North Korea rocket wa… The U.S. stations more than 28,000 troops in the South as a buttress against North Korean aggression.

South Korea said one of its navy ships near Jeju island had retrieved what it believed to a fairing – which shields the payload, or satellite, carried by a rocket – which would help provide clues about the launch.

Britain: Britain strongly condemned North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket on Sunday and warned of a “robust response” if Pyongyang continues to violate United Nations resolutions.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described North Korea’s move as “deeply deplorable” and “in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions”. China is responsible for about 70% of the North’s trade volume, according to South Korean estimates.