SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s foreign minister says a North Korean long-range rocket launch has been confirmed a “failure.”
Kim Sung-hwan provided no further details about what he said was the North’s failure to launch a rocket the West has condemned as a cover for a missile test. Kim told reporters today in a nationally televised address that Seoul was “strongly condemning North Korea’s new leadership” for ignoring warnings to cancel the launch.
North Korean officials had said the mission involved only an observation satellite. The launch coincided with a week aimed at celebrating Sunday’s centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder.
The United States, Japan, Britain, Russia and others said earlier this week that the launch would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from developing weapons programs. Experts said the Unha-3 carrier was similar to the type of rocket that could be used to fire a nuclear missile at the United States.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.