North Korea launches long-range rocket, angers United Nations, neighbours

“The two leaders agreed for the two countries to cooperate closely for the adoption of strong and effective sanctions resolutions as a united response by the worldwide community against the North’s nuclear test and a rocket launch using ballistic missile technology”, the presidential Blue House said.

Hours after North Korea claimed it had successfully put a satellite into orbit, South Korea and the USA announced that they would begin talks on the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to South Korea.

South Korea was monitoring for signs of another provocation from Pyongyang Monday, after it emerged that the South had fired shots to warn away a trespassing North Korean patrol boat earlier in the day.

A commentary by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency on Sunday called for calm.

Condemnation after the February 7 launch was swift, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling it “deeply deplorable” and said the rocket used ballistic-missile technology. North Korea does not acknowledge the border.

The payload was presumed to weigh 200kg (440lbs), double the size of the one launched in 2012, but much lighter than the 800-1,500kg usual for a satellite.

Since its January 6 nuclear test, which the North claimed was a powerful hydrogen bomb but experts believe was not, China and the United States have been negotiating the text of a new Security Council sanctions resolution.

“Both governments have decided that North Korea’s recent nuclear experiment and firing of long-range ballistic missile are a serious threat to the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region”, a South Korean military officer told NBC News. The UN Security Council has imposed four sets of sanctions since North Korea carried out its first atomic test nearly 10 years ago.

The rocket was launched at around 9:30am Seoul time (0030 GMT) in a southward trajectory.

North Korea is now beginning to face the Aftermath of their unsanctioned long-range missile launch this weekend. What the US, South Korea and other countries fear is that the satellite is actually a nuclear missile.