SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea said it successfully placed its first satellite in orbit and vowed to launch more in the near future, defying international condemnation from the United States and its allies.
North Korea’s KCNA state news agency said the Malligyong-1 satellite was launched on a Chollima-1 rocket from the Sohae satellite launch facility at 10:42 p.m. (1342 GMT) and entered orbit at 10:54 p.m. (1354 GMT). KCNA cited North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration.
North Korea had earlier notified Japan it planned to send up a satellite between Wednesday and Dec. 1, after two failed attempts to launch what it called spy satellites earlier this year.
South Korea responded to the North Korean announcement by saying it would take steps to suspend parts of a 2018 inter-Korean agreement designed to lower military tensions, its Yonhap news agency reported.
North Korea’s reported launch comes as the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier arrived at South Korea’s port city of Busan as part of an agreement between Washington and Seoul to promote the “regular visibility” of US military assets in the country, the Ministry of Defense said in a news release Tuesday.
It said the deployment signals a “combined defense posture” against North Korea.
The U.S. carrier group is the third Navy carrier to visit the peninsula so far this year. It is capable of carrying roughly 5,000 sailors and 70 aircraft, according to the Navy.
The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan also visited Busan in October to drill with the South Korean and Japanese navies.
KCNA said Kim Jong Un personally observed the launch, which came just over a week before South Korea plans to send its first spy satellite into space on a Falcon 9 rocket operated by the U.S. company Space X.
North Korea’s space agency will send up multiple satellites in the near future to continue securing surveillance capabilities over South Korea and other regions of interest to North Korea’s armed forces, the report said.
North Korea warned back then that the U.S. is increasing provocations of a “nuclear war” by deploying nuclear-capable bombers to the region. It said that U.S. nuclear assets stationed in the Korean peninsula will become Pyongyang’s “first targets for destruction” in the event of an actual conflict.
China’s foreign ministry said it is in the interest of all parties to ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea claimed it successfully placed its first spy satellite in orbit, vowing to launch more in the near future.
“China has taken note of (North Korea’s) announcement of its satellite launch and the reactions of relevant parties,” spokesperson Mao Ning said in response to a question on the situation at a regular media briefing on Wednesday.
“Maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula and promoting the process of political settlement of the peninsula issue are in the common interests of all countries in the region,” she said.