Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3
Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 () was a North Korean Earth observation satellite which, according to the DPRK, was for weather forecast purposes, and whose launch was widely portrayed in the West to be a veiled ballistic missile test. The satellite was launched on 13 April 2012 at 07:39 KST aboard the Unha-3 carrier rocket from Sohae Satellite Launching Station. The rocket exploded 90 seconds after launch near the end of the firing of the first stage of the rocket. The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the republic. On 1 December 2012  North Korea announced that a replacement satellite would be launched between 10 and 22 December 2012. After a delay and extending the launch window to 29 December, the rocket was launched on 12 December. Etymology. The name "Kwangmyŏngsŏng" is richly symbolic for North Korean nationalism and the Kim family cult. Even though the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was born in the village of Vyatskoye near Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East, DPRK sources claim Kim was born on Mount Paektu, and on that day a bright lode star (kwangmyŏngsŏng) appeared in the sky, so everyone knew a  new general had been born. Pre-launch announcement. On 16 March 2012, the Korean Central News Agency reported that the Korean Committee of Space Technology announced that Kwangmyongsong-3 was to be launched to mark the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth. In the same announcement it was said that the launch would be made southwards and debris generated from the flight would not impact neighbouring countries. On 17 March the North Korean government invited foreign experts and journalists to observe a satellite launch. The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) was officially invited to the launch on 21 March by  the North Korean Embassy to Russia but Roscosmos's spokesman said Russia refused to dispatch its experts to the launch because it violated a UN Security Council resolution. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency had rejected the invitation to send observers to the rocket launch; government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said "It is inappropriate that any Japanese officials participate in observing the launch". The main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said the rocket would take a "safer" flight path compared to previous launches which had strayed into Japanese airspace. The North's official news agency said it had told the International Civil Aviation Organization, the  International Maritime Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and other bodies about the upcoming launch. The government said the satellite would broadcast remote sensing data in the UHF band and video in the X-band. A few days later, an article released by the Korean Central News Agency stressed that "the peaceful development and use of space is a universally recognized legitimate right of a sovereign state. The satellite launch for scientific researches into the peaceful development and use of space and economic development can by no means be a monopoly of specified countries". Media coverage. Unlike North Korea's previous  launches which were very secretive and without foreign media coverage, officials from foreign media companies were invited to Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3. According to KCNA report, a total of 21 foreign media companies, including major worldwide services and television broadcasters such as the Associated Press, CNN and NBC of the United States; Russia's Channel One, NTV and Zvezda; Kyodo News Agency and NHK of Japan; Das Erste of Germany; Agence France-Presse of France; Reuters and BBC of the United Kingdom; South Africa's E.tv, Brazil's Estado de São Paulo, Libya's Libya TV and Malaysia's TV1 have sent reporters  to Pyongyang. On 8 April, journalists were allowed a guided tour of the launch pad. Satellite. North Korea said the satellite would estimate crop yields and collect weather data as well as assess the country's forest coverage and natural resources. It also said the satellite weighed about and that its planned lifetime was about two years. Inside a room at the launch facility, reporters were allowed to see the satellite. Launch and failure. In the United States, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia-Pacific Security Affairs Peter Lavoy told the House Armed Services Committee that North Korea had  indicated the rocket would be launched southward, but said that the US lacked confidence about the rocket's stability and where debris might impact. He said it was probably intended to land somewhere close to the Philippines or maybe Indonesia. He added that South Korea and the Japanese island of Okinawa could also be affected and that the debris could fall on their countries and cause casualties. Air-traffic control authorities in North and South Korea issued warnings to aircraft associated with North Korea's planned rocket launch. The warnings followed a message issued one week earlier by authorities in  the Philippines concerning restrictions on airspace during the 12–16 April 2012 launch window. North Korea's authorities closed a route that runs across the sky to the south of the Sohae launch facility between two navigation waypoints named "BODOK" and "TOMUK". On Friday, 23 March 2012, Pyongyang's foreign ministry spokesman said preparations for the rocket launch "have entered a full-fledged stage of action". On 26 March 2012 it was reported that the rocket was moved to a launch pad in the Sohae Launching Station using a train. The provider of high resolution satellite imagery DigitalGlobe took a photo  on Wednesday, 28 March, showing what appears to be trucks near the North Korean launch pad, while a crane arm on the tower had been swung wide. A day later, on 29 March, it was reported North Korea had begun filling the rocket with liquid fuel. An analysis provided to the Associated Press by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies on 5 April asserted that evidence suggests the first stage might be in the launch stand's closed gantry ahead of the planned launch on 12–16 April: the evidence, contained in satellite photos taken  on 4 April, suggested the completion of fuelling activity, with most of the empty fuel and oxidizer tanks removed from buildings supplying the first stage, a new barricade for vehicles on the road to the pad indicating higher security, and the removal of objects near the gantry and a clean-up of the launch pad. On 10 April North Ryu Kum Chol, deputy director of the Space Development Department of the Korean Committee for Space Technology told reporters at a news conference in Yanggakdo Hotel, Pyongyang, that the launch of the three-stage rocket was on target to take place  between 12 and 16 April and that all the assembly and preparations of the satellite launch were done, including fueling of the rocket. On 11 April 2012, Paek Chang Ho, head of the General Satellite Control Center, briefed journalists inside the center on Pyongyang's outskirts about the coming launch. Lift-off was postponed on 12 April 2012 due to bad weather. On 13 April 2012 at 07:38:55 KST, lift-off occurred. Ninety seconds later the rocket exploded and crashed into the Yellow Sea near Gunsan, South Korea. Reaction to the launch. North Korea. The Korean Central News Agency released  a news report on the launch: The same news report was aired in the Korean Central Television. Following the failure, a hastily assembled official press conference on the rocket was suddenly cancelled on Friday morning; close to noon, handlers moved the press corps onto buses under high security. Expectations were that the government would make an official statement on the rocket launch's failure and give closure to the day's highly public embarrassment. The fanfare instead turned out to be in honor of a new, approximately 25-meter tall bronze statue of Kim Jong-il, North Korea's late  leader and father to Kim Jong-un, the country's 29-year-old First Secretary. More than 100,000 North Koreans came out for a government-organized celebration on Friday evening with bright costumes, flags and flowers to celebrate the unveiling of the monument. On 17 April, the Korean Central News Agency released a report on North Korea to continue launching satellites which would be used for "peaceful purposes" and further launches are to include geostationary satellites. In the same report, it is stated that North Korea would no longer abide to the 29 February "Leap Day" Agreement, in which North  Korea would abandon missile and nuclear tests for food aid, saying that the United States broke the agreement.