North Korea said yesterday it launched an "anthem singing" satellite into space, sowing confusion in Seoul, Washington and Tokyo which had accused Pyongyang of firing a ballistic missile.
But early this morning Russia's space observation centre said it had spotted the satellite, ITARTASS news agency reported. A centre official told the agency that the launch indicated that North Korea had the technical knowledge for firing an intercontinental missile. Yesterday US intelligence had reserved judgement.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) had said: "Our scientists and technicians have succeeded in launching the first artificial satellite aboard a multistage rocket into orbit." "The satellite is now transmitting the melody of the immortal revolutionary hymns Song of General Kim Il-Sung and Song of Kim Jong-Il and the morse signals `juche Korea' in 27 megahertz," it said.
US, South Korean and Japanese intelligence have said North Korea fired its new Taepo-Dong 1 ballistic missile over Japan on Monday, a move which caused fury and concern in East Asia and Washington.
A satellite would be a spectacular advance for the impoverished Stalinist state and no such event was apparently reported by US, Japanese, South Korean or any other surveillance.
Proof that North Korea's claim was true would be extremely embarrassing for the defence and intelligence communities of the US, Japan and South Korea.
Seoul began investigating the possibility, admitting it was no longer certain what to think about the launch. Tokyo remained more dubious about Pyongyang's claim, but appeared to have lost some of its earlier confidence.
Government officials in Seoul said they had detected "radio transmissions" of revolutionary hymns from North Korea, but could not ascertain whether these emanated from a satellite or from another source.
Defence ministry officials said they were not "ruling out the possibility" of the firing being a satellite launch, but said Pyongyang's story may be an attempt to cover up the launch and reduce tensions.
But in Tokyo, Japanese officials and analysts expressed doubts that North Korea had the technical capability to place a satellite in space, despite Pyongyang's claims of success.
"It's impossible," a Japanese Foreign Ministry source said.
KCNA said the rocket and satellite launch were "a fruition of [North Korea's] wisdom and technology 100 per cent."
It said the satellite was in an elliptical orbit around Earth at 218.8 km at its nearest point and 6,978.2 km at its furthest, circling the globe every 165 minutes six seconds.
The announcement came on the eve of the expected appointment of the North Korean leader, Mr Kim Jong-Il, as president today, taking over the post unoccupied since his father Kim Il-Sung died in July 1994.
KCNA also carried a foreign ministry statement - the North's most authoritative source of news - blasting those who had said North Korea was endangering regional stability by launching a missile.
People outside of North Korea "are making a fuss, ignorant of this valuable success of science and technology which will add to the common treasure house of humanity," it said.