Asiana Airlines staff monitor an airline route map at the company’s operations control center in Seoul, Sunday, after North Korea launched a rocket. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said that all local airliners rerouted their flights. / Yonhap |
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Cheong Wa Dae and the U.S. military said Sunday that North Korea failed to put a satellite into orbit, disputing the North's claim that a rocket launch earlier in the day was a success.
``Stage-one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan (East Sea),'' the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command said in their brief account of the rocket launch. ``The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean. No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan.''
The presidential office echoed the U.S. military's judgment, saying it had received a report from military and intelligence officials that the plan to put a satellite into orbit failed. During a National Assembly hearing, Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee also confirmed this, but added that it was possible for Pyongyang to follow up on the abortive attempt with a nuclear weapon test. The North detonated an atomic device in an underground test in October 2006.
The response came after North Korea said its satellite was orbiting normally and transmitting ``immortal revolutionary songs'' in praise of the communist state's current and former leaders, about four hours after launching the multistage rocket that appeared to be carrying a communications satellite.
``Our scientists and technicians succeeded in putting the Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite into orbit on the delivery rocket Unha-2,'' the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. ``The satellite is moving normally in its orbit.''
The communist country launched the rocket _ widely viewed as a test of ballistic missile technology _ in defiance of international appeals.
The move sparked an uproar and strong voices of concern from the international community, with the United States and Japan calling for sanctions on the communist country through the U.N. Security Council.
The rocket blasted off from the North's northeastern military base at 11:30 (KST) and flew over northern Japan. Debris from the first-stage splashed down in waters off Japan's northwestern coast, while the second-stage fell into the Pacific, Japanese media said quoting related officials.
Seoul reacted calmly to the provocation.
``The North's rocket launch threatens regional peace and stability,'' President Lee Myung-bak said at a National Security Council (NSC) meeting of top security and intelligence officials. ``My administration will wait for a change in North Korea with patience and consistency,'' he said.
Lee ordered the military to closely monitor the North's military and beef up security on the inter-Korean border, Cheong Wa Dae said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Pyongyang had tested a ``Taepodong-2 long-range missile.''
``North Korea fired a Taepodong-2 missile in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718,'' said Obama, who is in Prague on his first tour of Europe. ``With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations.''
Obama said the United States would consult with allies Japan and South Korea to bring the issue to the U.N Security Council. Diplomats said the council would meet Sunday (local time).
The North tested a missile and an atomic weapon in 2006, while engaging in the six-party talks on scrapping its nuclear program.
The North fired a Taepodong-2, with an estimated range of 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometers), in July 2006, but the missile failed 40 seconds after lift-off.
The launch will stir an arms race in Northeast Asia and put the multilateral talks on the North's nuclear program in danger, analysts said. The North is prohibited from any missile-testing related activities under the U.N. resolution, adopted in 2006 after Pyongyang conducted its nuclear test.
Some analysts said even if the launch was a test of a delivery system for a nuclear warhead, it would be difficult for the U.N. Security Council to actually punish the North if a satellite really was the payload.
The ambiguity means any decision on how to respond will be political, said Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank that provides detailed analysis on North Korea.
``It's pretty clear already: I think the Chinese and the Russians, but particularly the Chinese, are not going to support additional sanctions,'' he told reporters April 3. ``It really depends upon the views of the permanent five members of the Security Council. And if China or Russia do not support this, then nothing's going to happen.''
``Based on the agreement between South Korea and the United States and Japan that the North's rocket launch was a clear violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, Lee will seek international sanctions with those countries,'' a presidential spokesman said. ``The move has posed a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.''
This was the second NSC meeting since President Lee took office early last year. He convened the first after North Korean soldiers killed a female South Korean tourist at the Mt. Geumgang resort complex last July.
jj@koreatimes.co.kr
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경찰, 이태원 등 외국인 밀집지역 특별관리
