SEOUL -- In danger of falling behind in the space race on the Korean peninsula, Seoul announced Wednesday it had successfully launched a rocket into space.
Pressure had been mounting ever since mid-December when Communist archrival, North Korea, managed to launch a multi-stage rocket and put a satellite into orbit.
South Korea's Satellite Launch Vehicle-1, which is also known as Naro, blasted off at 4 p.m. local time from a space center in Jeolla province on the Southwestern coast.
"Five hundred forty seconds after the launch, Naro successfully separated the satellite," South Korean Science and Technology Minister Lee Joo-ho said at a press briefing Wednesday. "After analyzing various data we have confirmed that [the satellite] has been successfully put into orbit."
South Korean officials said the launch made them the 13th country to get a satellite into orbit from their own territory. Iran on Monday announced as well that it had launched a live monkey into space using its own technology.
The sky was clear and the weather had warmed up on Wednesday afternoon at the space center, where some 3,000 people had gathered to observe their country’s latest attempt to launch Naro. The crowd excitedly cheered and waved the national flag during the countdown.
Two previous attempts to launch the space vehicle in 2009 and 2010 ended in failures. The third attempt was to take place in October, but it was delayed due to damaged rubber seal that caused a fuel leak. The next try came in November, but it was canceled seventeen minutes before the rocket was fired off due to a technical glitch.
The failures looked all the more embarrassing after North Korea's, with an economy less than one-twentieth the size of South Korea's, successful launch on Dec. 12 of the Unha-3 rocket. What North Koreans have dubbed "peaceful satellite launch" was a part of the legacy of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il who passed away in December 2011.
The international community condemned North Korea as their rocket launch was suspected to be a cover for a test of ballistic missile technology.
Lee Sang-ryul, a South Korean scientist with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said the launches seven weeks apart were not comparable because the South Korean objective was purely scientific.
"The exterior of Unha-3 and Naro seems to be very much alike. It is about the same weight, the shapes are similar, and the fact that it puts a satellite in the orbit is the same. However, I believe North Korea's purpose is not to develop a satellite launch vehicle but a weapons development," South Korean television quoted Lee as saying Wednesday.
North Korea said earlier this month it would also conduct a nuclear test and that "the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire...are targeted at the United States, the arch enemy of the Korean people."
Independent scientists say that the North Korean satellite was not a complete success because the transmitter failed during the launch, but that it achieved a reasonably accurate orbit.
"Most countries when they launch their first satellite, don't get too close," said with Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in a recent interview. However, he added that South Koreans shouldn't feel that North Korea has beaten them.
"It is difficult, but it is basically high-tech plumbing," said McDowell. "It is not as sophisticated as creating the industrial base to make a Samsung monitor."
South Korea's Naro space program began in 2002 with the help of Russian technology. The South had so far sent about ten satellites into space, but they were all launched from foreign rockets overseas.
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--Barbara Demick is reporting from Beijing.
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