Archive for April 6th, 2009
Disapproval led by Obama against the defiant N Korea
President Obama has led international disapproval of North Korea this morning after it launched an intercontinental rocket over Japan; disobeying weeks of warnings from world leaders and risking new sanctions and high level denunciation in the UN Security Council. Mr Obama called the launch “provocative” and a clear violation of UN Security Council rule
“The launch today of a Taepodong-2 missile was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind,” the US President said in a statement.
North Korea announced several weeks ago that it planned to send what it called an “experimental communications satellite” into space from the Musudan-ri launch site in the north-east.
The three-stage rocket was fired at 11.30am (02.30GMT) from the Musudan-ri launch site in the north-east of North Korea. It safely cleared northern Japan where batteries of Patriot missile interceptors and nervous local authorities were on standby in case of a misfiring or falling missile fragments.
North Korea says the launch is part of what it calls peaceful space development.
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