Video Purportedly Shows North Korean Rocket Launch

ByCATHERINE THORBECKE ABCNews logo
Thursday, February 11, 2016

Kim Jong Un, the self-proclaimed "Supreme Leader" of North Korea, has released video footage showing the rocket launch he reportedly oversaw on Saturday.

The KCNA, the state-owned news agency in North Korea, reported that the blastoff was a "complete success" and for "peaceful purposes."

This launch comes exactly one month after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea allegedly tested a nuclear bomb.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean national, called the rocket launch "deeply deplorable."

The UN Security Council hosted an emergency meeting following reports of the launch and subsequently condemned North Korea for breaking international security resolutions in a statement.

World leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and other nations have also spoken out condemning the launch. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the launch a "major provocation" and a threat "not only the security of the Korean peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well" in a statement.

The unverified footage of the rocket launch appears very similar to the footage the regime released of a rocket launch in 2012.

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