DPRK's launch to have minor impact on S Korea

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s rocket launch will only have a limited and transitory impact on the Republic of Korea(ROK)'s financial markets, the global credit rating agency Moody's said Friday.

"The test demonstrates the 29 February agreement with the Obama administration was a false dawn for a brighter future for the DPRK and an easing of geopolitical tensions on the Korean Peninsula," Thomas Byrne, senior vice president at Moody's, said in an email interview with Xinhua.

Byrne said that things are back to the way they were before February 29. "As such, we have noticed and expect that market volatility in Seoul will be limited and transitory," he said.

The DPRK fired the Unha-3 rocket on Friday morning, but the rocket dropped several minutes after takeoff, and broke into several pieces before falling into the sea, according to the ROK finance ministry.

The DPRK's official KCNA news agency confirmed Friday that a satellite, launched by the Unha-3 rocket, had failed to enter orbit.

ROK's monetary and financial authorities tried to prevent the possible negative impacts from the DPRK's rocket launch. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in a statement that the rocket launch was nothing to worry about, stressing that the event risk was already priced in the market when the launch plan was announced last month.

"As seen in geopolitical risks mounting on the peninsula in the past, our financial market recovered rapidly from the risks within three to seven days. The financial market seemed not to be influenced by the event for now, but we are watching what will happen very closely and cautiously," Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Kim Choong-soo told reporters.