South Korea's leading intelligence agency has admitted that North Korea launched a satellite in 1998, overturning a previous assessment that the communist country fired a long-range missile.
In a parliamentary report, Ko Young-koo, head of the National Intelligence Service, said Thursday [24 February] that a "Daepodong-1" [Taepodong-1] missile was used in launching the satellite in August 1998.
Ko also said Pyongyang appears to be developing a rocket engine for its Daepodong-2 missile, which is capable of reaching the United States.
His remarks came amid heightened tension over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme after the communist regime declared that it has built nuclear weapons and will only rejoin nuclear disarmament talks if certain "conditions" are met.
In September 1998, the United States said the North failed to put the satellite into orbit but South Korea instead described it as a Daepodong-1 missile.
North Korea denounced Seoul for providing misleading information on its peaceful satellite activity.
North Korea announced a moratorium on ballistic missile testing in 1999 and said that it would extend the moratorium beyond 2003.
