North Korea launched a long-range rocket on December 12th despite calls from the international community to scrap its plans.

Shortly after the North’s rocket launch, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan condemned the North saying the South regards the rocket launch as a launch of a long-range missile. Kim said the rocket launch is in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and poses threats and challenges to peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the world. He also urged the North to channel the massive funds that go into developing missiles toward its people.

South Korean military officials announced that the North fired a long-range missile at a site in Dongchang-ri in Cheolsan County, North Pyongan Province at 9:51 a.m. and that the South’s King Sejong the Great Aegis-class destroyer deployed in the Yellow Sea first detected it 20 seconds after launch. The South’s military assessed that the North’s rocket launch was successful.

The latest launch was the North’s fourth. The communist state launched long-range rockets in 1998 and 2009. On both occasions, Pyongyang claimed it had successfully put a satellite into space, but it was later revealed the launches were unsuccessful.

On April 13th of this year, the North launched its Eunha-3 long-range rocket to put its Gwyangmyongsong-3 satellite into orbit but such efforts also failed.

The North’s launch this month caught most off guard since Pyongyang had initially announced it would extend its launch window by one week until December 29th.

The surprise launch has since raised questions about the South Korean government’s ability to handle intelligence regarding the communist state.

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