North Korea says to make special announcement after rocket launch

US officials previously said North Korea would be ready to launch a satellite by kickoff on Super Bowl Sunday, which would be Monday in East Asia.

North Korea has successfully launched a satellite into space, North Korean state TV reports. He said the US will continue to push the worldwide community for measures that “hold the DPRK to account”. North Korea is officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch an unforgivable act of provocation.

South Korea’s government says North Korea will make a special public announcement at noon Pyongyang time following Sunday’s rocket launch.

The United States was tracking the rocket launch and said it did not believe that it posed a threat to the United States or its allies, defense officials said.

The move has been anticipated as North Korea updated on Saturday a notification sent earlier to United Nations agencies that the launch-viewed by many as a long-range missile test-would take place between February 7-14, instead of the previous schedule of February 8-25. The rocket’s first stage fell off South Korea’s west coast, the official said.

While the timing of the launch will be mainly determined by conditions such as weather, South Korean analysts had speculated that the North might attempt to pull off the launch ahead of February 16, the birthday of late dictator Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un.

Washington also said the DPRK launched a “Taepodong-2 missile” in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718, which forbids the country from using ballistic missile technology.

Recent commercial satellite imagery analyzed by USA researchers showed tanker trucks at the launch pad at North Korea’s Sohae facility, which likely indicates the filling of fuel and oxidizer tanks in preparation for the launch, the Associated Press reported.

The launch comes after the news that the U.S. Congress was preparing to approve new sanctions on North Korea that would impact Chinese companies.

The North claims success, but U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command says no satellite reaches orbit.

According to Japan’s national public broadcasting organization NHK, the fired object split into five parts with one landing in the Yellow Sea, two in the East China Sea, another estimated to have fallen into the Pacific Ocean with the final part continuing southward.

According to a 2015 report on Pyongyang’s space program by 38 North, testing rockets through satellite launches would provide invaluable data for potential future ICBMs.

Condemnation was swift, with the United States calling the launch “destabilising and provocative”, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slammed it as “absolutely intolerable”.

Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun said a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer detected the North Korean launch at 9:31 a.m. local time.

The U.N. Security Council already has imposed sanctions against the North for its ballistic missile program, but they have not proven effective in getting the rogue nation to end its periodic provocations. North Korea is banned from conducting missile and nuclear tests, under the terms of United Nations sanctions imposed after a series of nuclear weapons tests.

“As North Korea works to build a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the United States it is clear the Obama administration’s policy of “strategic patience” has failed”, he said.