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Tensions on the Korean Peninsula

North Korean television broadcasts report on preparations for rocket launch

The report broadcast an inspection trip of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un to the testing ground in the run-up to the launch

© AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

TOKYO, February 11. /TASS/. North Korea’s central television broadcast a report on Thursday on preparations to put a satellite into orbit around the Earth atop a rocket on February 7, Japanese broadcaster NHK has released the video.

TENSIONS ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA

The report broadcast an inspection trip of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un to the testing ground in the run-up to the launch. However, the exact date was not mentioned.

Besides, in the foreground the camera prominently featured a launch base and a bunker, supposedly, built nearby the lift-off site to see launches.

Kim Jong-un was watching the launch from the bunker, South Korean media outlets said.

North Korea successfully launched a satellite into space, its state-run TV said on Monday.

Carrier rocket Kwangmyongsong blasted off from the Sohae Space Center at 9 am Sunday local time, state news agency KCNA said. The Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite entered orbit nine minutes and 46 seconds after the liftoff, an operation "great leader Kim Jong Un personally ordered and directed," the TV anchor said.

Although North Korea said the launch was for scientific and "peaceful purposes" adding it plans to launch more satellites it was viewed by other nations, such as Japan and South Korea, as a front for a ballistic missile test, especially coming on the heels of North Korea's purported hydrogen bomb test last month.

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Situation on the Korean Peninsula

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