S. Korea Trying to Verify North’s Satellite Claim

Two days after North Korea announced that it had launched a scientific satellite into orbit, South Korea said Sunday that it still could not verify the claim.

Chief presidential spokesman Park Jie Won said South Korea had not yet determined whether North Korea last Monday fired a missile or launched a satellite.

On Friday, North Korea denied that it launched a ballistic missile, saying it successfully fired into orbit its first artificial satellite.

U.S. and Japanese defense officials initially said the launch was the test-firing of a ballistic missile that sailed over northern Japan and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. They are now investigating North Korea’s claims of a satellite launch.

North Korea said reports of a missile firing were wrong.

“Some people . . . suspected it to be a ballistic missile-launching test, expressed some apprehensions and described it as a serious event,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said.

North Korea said the satellite is circling Earth and transmitting revolutionary hymns praising the late President Kim Il Sung and his heir and son, Kim Jong Il.

But South Korean officials said Sunday that they failed to detect such transmissions.

“All 11 monitoring stations throughout the country could not detect any signals,” one government official said.