(photo illustration)
TOKYO (Reuters) - South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said on Sunday that Seoul had judged that North Korea had failed to put its satellite launched earlier in the day into orbit, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
"Based on our judgment made so far, all first, second and third (stage) rockets fell into the ocean, and thus nothing has been put into orbit," Kyodo quoted Lee as telling a parliamentary session in Seoul.
The first stage of the long range rocket fell into the Sea of Japan and the second stage traveled over Northern Japan, dropping in the Pacific Ocean. Pyongyang had notified that the 'Satellite' rocket launch would take place between April 4 and 8.
UPDATE:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea and the U.S. military say there's no North Korean satellite orbiting the earth as claimed by Pyongyang.
South Korea's defense minister says all three sections of the North Korean rocket fell into the sea after launch this morning.
And a statement from the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command says "no object entered orbit."
But North Korean state-run media says the satellite was transmitting data and patriotic odes to leader Kim Jong Il and founder Kim Il Sung.
The Korean Central News Agency says the satellite reached outer space in just over nine minutes.
North Korea says the launch was a peaceful bid to develop its space program.
But the U.S., South Korea, Japan and others suspect the launch was a guise for testing the regime's long-range missile technology.
UPDATE: SEOUL, April 5 (UPI) -- North Korea failed to put a rocket into orbit Sunday, contrary to its earlier claim of a successful launch, U.S. and South Korean officials said.
The North Korean payload fell into the Pacific Ocean, along with the second-stage rocket, the Yonhap news agency quoted an anonymous South Korean government official as saying.
The U.S. Northern Command Web site described the launched rocket as "not a threat" to its territory.
The last two stages of the rocket fell into the Pacific Ocean along with the payload and the first stage fell into the East Sea, the Northern Command site claimed.
"No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan," the Web site said.
The rocket was launched despite warnings from North Korea's neighbors and the United States, a South Korean official said.
The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting Sunday to consider possible action against North Korea.
Editors note: No doubt, Japanese and U.S. Military will be mounting a search to find the payload and other stages of the N. Korean rocket.
Propaganda video released by North Korea in 1998 claiming their first successful orbiting of communications satellite which also did not make orbit. Not only do they suck at rocket science but they lie too! Look for anew bogus video claiming the recent launch was a success as well.
3 comments:
Looks like it was a test of their long-range missile capability. I don't trust them. If it did hit US territory, I know they would have claimed a "malfunction" in its guidance system.
Heres the latest: Within hours after the three-stage rocket lifted off from North Korea's Musudan-ri launch facility at 11:20 a.m., the state-run North Korean press agency trumpeted the success of the satellite, called Kwangmyongsong-2.
"The carrier rocket and the satellite developed by our own wisdom and technology are the fruit of our struggle to enhance our nation's space science technology to a higher level," said the Korean Central News Agency.
Yet South Korean government officials said late today that Pyongyang's satellite was a failure.
"So far, what [we] concluded is that the first to the third [stages] fell on the sea," Lee Sang-hee, South Korea's defense minister, told an emergency session of parliament. The "object failed to enter orbit."
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But my question is, did it fail or did the US shoot it down? That's something we may never know.
For the US it looks better that North Korean rocket was a failure - like the NK regime is currently doing.
Plus the US would never admit it was shot down for two reasons - feared reprisals from "fearless leader" a certified nut-job - not to mention - a successful shoot-down would reveal top-secret missile interception capabilities, something we aren't about to do with Russia worrying about the deployment of a missile defense shield in Europe.
Meanwhile North Korea will lie to the world and tell everyone that it was a big success - but we know the truth.
NORAD and USNORTHCOM monitor North Korean launch
April 05, 2009
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials acknowledged today that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday which passed over the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the nation of Japan.
Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean.
No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan.
NORAD and USNORTHCOM assessed the space launch vehicle as not a threat to North America or Hawaii and took no action in response to this launch.
This is all of the information that will be provided by NORAD and USNORTHCOM pertaining to the launch.
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