North Koreans celebrated the country’s successful launching of a satellite into orbit having an official fireworks display in Pyongyang Monday tonight, state broadcaster KCTV reported.”We hope the future of our space technology keeps growing and shines like these fireworks in the sky,” an announcer on the North Korean broadcaster said during coverage of the celebrations in the capital.
The launch of the long-range rocket on Sunday triggered a wave of international condemnation and prompted strong reaction from a crisis meeting of the U.N. Security Council.Though North Korea said the launching was for scientific and “peaceful intentions,” it’s being widely seen by other countries as a front to test a ballistic missile, particularly coming on the heels of North Korea’s purported hydrogen bomb test last month.
Pyongyang carried out both actions in defiance of international sanctions. South Korea recovered about 270 pieces of debris, considered to have come from the rocket launch, from the ocean Sunday, and is working to examine the things, a South Korean Defense Ministry official told CNN.At a crisis meeting Sunday, members of the U.N. Security Council “strongly condemned” the launching and reaffirmed that “a clear threat to international peace and security continues to exist, especially in the context of the nuclear test.
“The Security Council vowed to undertake punitive actions against North Korea, announcing plans to “embrace expeditiously a new Security Council resolution with such measures in response to these dangerous and serious violations,” according to a statement read by Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations after the meeting. Sanctions in place against Pyongyang blacklist certain figures and organizations, ban it from dealing with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and prohibit the import of high-end goods.
