[6] The United Nations Security Council condemned the satellite launch, regarding it as a violation of the ban on North Korean ballistic missile tests, as the rocket technology is the same.

While Soviet records recount that the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was born in the village of Vyatskoye near Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East,[15] DPRK internal sources claim that Kim was born on Mount Baekdu and that on that day a bright lodestar ("kwangmyŏngsŏng") appeared in the sky.

North Korea claims the satellite would estimate crop yields and collect weather data as well as assess the country's forest coverage and natural resources.

[26] Data collected by Spain, Italy and United Kingdom suggest the brightness of the satellite has been fluctuating, which indicates it is tumbling as it orbits.

[28] At noon local time, the Korean Central News Agency released a news report on the launch: Pyongyang, 12 December (KCNA) – The second version of satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 successfully lifted off from the Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province by carrier rocket Unha-3 on Wednesday.

Carrier rocket Unha-3 with the second version of satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 atop blasted off from the Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province at 09:49:46 on 12 December, Juche 101(2012).

The successful launch of the satellite is a proud fruition of the Workers' Party of Korea's policy of attaching importance to the science and technology.

It is also an event of great turn in developing the country's science, technology and economy by fully exercising the independent right to use space for peaceful purposes.

[29] On 20 December, the Korean Central Television aired a 27-minute documentary titled "Successful Launch of Kwangmyongsong 3-2 under the Leadership of Dear Respected Marshal Kim Jong Un".

[31][32] On 14 December state television in North Korea broadcast images of hundreds of thousands of people celebrating the successful launch in Pyongyang's central square, while military and scientific personnel gave speeches.

[33] On 22 February 2013, the Permanent Mission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the United Nations registered the satellite in conformity with the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.