North Koreans celebrated their controversial long-range rocket launch on 8 February with a vast parade and fireworks display. State-run television KRT showed video of thousands of Pyongyang citizens and soldiers along with high-ranking government officials attending the rally in the capital, the day after it launched a long-range rocket carrying what North Korea has called a satellite.
Also broadcast by KRT was footage of North Koreans watching the about 10-minute-long fireworks display at Kim Il Sung square but their leader Kim Jong Un was not seen at the event.
The rocket launch has renewed international condemnation just weeks after it carried out a nuclear bomb test. Critics of the rocket programme, including the US and South Korea, say it is being used to test technology for a long-range missile. The two countries said they would explore whether to deploy an advanced missile defence system in South Korea at the earliest possible date.
The US Strategic Command said it had detected a missile entering space, and South Koreas military said the rocket had put an object into orbit. North Korea said the launch of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, named after late leader Kim Jong Il, was a complete success and it was making a polar orbit of Earth every 94 minutes. The UN Security Council condemned the launch in an emergency meeting on 7 February and vowed to take significant measures in response to Pyongyangs violations of UN resolutions.
