[Captured from YTN]
North Korea has drawn hundreds of thousands of citizens into the streets of Pyongyang for a hero's welcome to scientists involved in its long-range rocket launch, state media said Thursday.
The streets were "overcrowded" with workers and students singing songs or shouting slogans on Wednesday to welcome the arrival of rocket scientists and engineers in Pyongyang, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Separately, Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central Television aired pictures showing leader Kim Jong-Un observing the Sohae rocket launch site together with officials in charge of nuclear and missile development.
Kim was also seen talking with officials inside North Korea's Air Force One.
North Korea has been in a festive mood since it launched a long-range rocket in an apparent test of its ballistic missile technology, defying international warnings that it would face tough United Nations sanctions.
The nuclear-armed country hailed the launch, ordered directly by Kim, as an "epoch-making" event and promised to go ahead with more rocket launches.
The launch triggered condemnation from Washington and its allies, which regard it as a cover for developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear bomb up to the US mainland.
The first stage of the rocket exploded in mid-air and landed in the Yellow Sea.
On Thursday, the South's navy said it has retrieved what is believed to be debris from the rocket in waters some 105 kilometers (90 miles) off Ochung Island.
아주경제 임장원 기자 = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
