North Korea is preparing for its fifth nuclear test, the South’s intelligence services have said, as cited by Yonhap agency. The news come hours after Pyongyang claimed it had successfully put an earth observation satellite into orbit.
Yonhap cited a Seoul lawmaker, who said the North has the technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Further details are awaited.
Earlier, the agency reported that the South Korean military found suspected fragments of the North’s rocket which was launched early Sunday.
The metal object believed to be a part of the rocket’s fairing (the nose cone which houses the payload) was discovered southeast of South Korea’s Jeju Island by a navy ship, an official from the country’s Defense Ministry said.
“The satellite is presumed to weigh 200 kilograms, two times heavier than the satellite launched in 2012,” the lawmaker said, after being briefed in a closed-door session by the National Intelligence Service. A proper satellite usually weighs at least 800 to 1,500 kilograms, the agency wrote.
The North Korean satellite was launched on a “carrier rocket” that blasted off from the Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County. The KCNA news agency said the satellite entered its preset orbit nine minutes and 46 seconds after lift-off at 9:09am Korean time.
Russia’s Interfax agency has cited the North Korean embassy in Moscow as saying that Pyongyang is planning to continue to launching rockets carrying satellites into space.
North Korea said the launch of its satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, named after late leader Kim Jong Il, was a “complete success” and that it was making a polar orbit of the earth every 94 minutes. The launch order was given by his son, leader Kim Jong Un, who is believed to be 33 years old.
North Korea’s last long-range rocket launch, in 2012, put what it called a communications satellite into orbit, but no signal has ever been detected from it.
“Everything we have seen is consistent with a successful repeat of the 2012 (launch),” said U.S. missile technology expert John Schilling.
“But it’s still too early to tell for sure,” said Schilling, who is involved in the “38 North” North Korean monitoring project at Johns Hopkins University.
The rocket was launched at around 9:30 a.m. Seoul time (7.30 p.m. ET/0030 GMT) in a southward trajectory, as planned. Japan’s Fuji Television Network showed a streak of light heading into the sky, taken from a camera at China’s border with North Korea.
North Korea had notified U.N. agencies that it planned to launch a rocket carrying an Earth observation satellite, triggering opposition from governments that see it as a long-range missile test.
The U.N. Security Council was likely to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the launch, at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea, diplomats said.
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.( Reuters)
Link: http://atimes.com/2016/02/north-korea-launches-long-range-rocket-s-korea/
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