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« on: 2009-04-04 23:28:09 » |
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North Korean rocket passes over Japan
Source: Reuters
Authors: Linda Sieg (Tokyo), Jack Kim (Seoul), Jon Herskovitz (Reporting, Seoul), Kim Yeon-hee (Reporting, Seoul), Rodney Joyce (Reporting, Tokyo), Dean Yates (Writing), Jeremy Laurence (Editing)
Dated: 2009-04-03
North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Sunday that passed over Japan, the government in Tokyo said, defying calls from world leaders to scrap a plan that has caused international alarm.
The U.S. State Department confirmed North Korea had launched the rocket but had no further details. South Korea's presidential Blue House would make a statement at 11:00 p.m. EDT, local TV said.
Japan said the rocket's second booster stage had splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, indicating the launch had been successful.
"The projectile launched from North Korea today appears to have passed over toward the Pacific," the Japan prime minister's office said in a statement.
The United States, South Korea and Japan say the launch is actually the test of a Taepodong-2 missile, which is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday the international community would take action if North Korea went ahead with the launch to show Pyongyang it could not act with impunity.
Impoverished North Korea, which for years has used military threats to wring concessions from regional powers, has said it is putting a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful space program and threatened war if the rocket was intercepted.
Sunday was the second day in the April 4-8 timeframe the secretive North, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, had set for the launch. In its only previous test flight, in July 2006, the Taepodong-2 blew apart about 40 seconds after launch.
The first rocket booster stage appeared to drop into the Sea of Japan, an estimated 280 km (170 miles) west of the northern Japan coast, the prime minister's office said in a statement.
The second piece appeared to fall into the Pacific Ocean around 1,270 km (790 miles) east of Japan, it said.
JAPAN SAYS TOOK NO ACTION AGAINST ROCKET
Japan's Kyodo news agency said no interceptors had been launched at the rocket and no damage on the ground had been reported.
Japan had dispatched missile intercepting-ships and anti-missile batteries along the projected flight path.
Tokyo said it would not intercept the missile but that it was ready to shoot down any debris, such as falling booster stages, that might threaten its territory.
Analysts said the launch may help North Korean leader Kim Jong-il shore up support after a suspected stroke in August raised questions of his grip on power and bolster his hand in using military threats to win concessions from global powers.
The United States, Japan and South Korea will view the launch as a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in 2006 after Pyongyang carried out the nuclear test and other missile tests.
That resolution, number 1718, demands North Korea "suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program."
U.N. Security Council diplomats have told Reuters on condition of anonymity that no country was considering imposing new sanctions but the starting point could be discussing a resolution for the stricter enforcement of earlier sanctions.
Both Russia and China, the latter the nearest the reclusive North has to a major ally, have made clear they would block new sanctions by the Council, where they have veto power.
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