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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》North Korea launches long-range rocket
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, yesterday watches a long-range rocket launch in a photograph released by Kyodo. Photo: Reuters / Kyodo
EMERGENCY MEETING: The UN Security Council was to meet to discuss the launch. South Korea’s defense ministry said that it had retrieved a fragment from the rocket
/ Bloomberg
North Korea yesterday launched a long-range rocket, just weeks after conducting a fourth nuclear test in the latest setback for international efforts to pressure the Kim Jong-un regime to end its weapons program.
The nation claimed it was successful in putting the “Kwangmyongsong 4” （Shining Star 4） satellite into space, North Korean anchorwoman Ri Chun-hui said on state television, adding that there would be more launches to come.
The rocket was fired at about 9:30am and disappeared off the radar after flying almost 800km south, a South Korean official said.
“The fascinating vapor of Juche satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February” is a gift from the nation’s scientists to Kim, the party and the people, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
A US official said it might take days to assess whether the launch was a success.
The rocket’s first stage fell off North Korea’s west coast at 9:32am, and the rocket disappeared from South Korean radars at 9:36am off the southwestern coast.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense later announced it had retrieved what it believes to be a fairing dropped by the rocket.
The object was found southeast of Jeju island by a navy ship, a ministry official said.
A fairing shields the payload, or satellite, carried by a rocket into space.
Retrieving parts of the rocket that carried what the North says is a satellite into space would help provide clues into Pyongyang’s rocket program.
Hours after the launch, South Korea and the US announced they would start talks on the deployment of the US’ Thaad ballistic missile defense system on South Korean soil. The government in Seoul also said it would expand the use of propaganda broadcasts along the heavily fortified border with the North, Yonhap reported, citing the nation’s joint chiefs of staff, as well as cut the number of workers at the inter-Korean industrial complex in the North Korean city of Gaeseong..
The launch drew immediate condemnation from the US, Japan and South Korea. US Secretary of State John Kerry called the firing “a flagrant violation” of UN Security Council resolutions against the North testing ballistic missile technology, while South Korean President Park Geun-hye said the launch was an “unacceptable provocation” and called for additional sanctions to be leveled at Pyongyang.
The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the launch at 11am, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a text message.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying （華春瑩） said her nation “regrets” the use of ballistic missile technology to conduct the launch, while urging a “calm” response.
“The Chinese side always maintains that dialogue and consultation is the only way to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region,” she said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site.
The US would work with UN Security Council members to develop “significant measures” to hold North Korea accountable, Kerry said in a statement.
“Now is the time to do so in a firm and united way, with measures that make clear the determination of the international community to address the pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities by” North Korea, he said.
Additional reporting by AP and Reuters
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
