The launch was also timed to celebrate the 74th birthday of the late leader Kim Jong Il on February 16.

The head of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command stated that Kwangmyongsong-4 was almost twice as large as Kwangmyongsong-3, and South Korean officials estimated the mass as 200 kilograms (440 lb).

[12] On 22 February 2016, Russian news agency TASS reported the statement by Colonel Andrei Kalyuta of Russia's National Space Monitoring Center that, based on the orbit of the satellite, it was in line with the declared purpose.

[19] In addition to claiming North Korea was planning a Moon mission, Hyon Kwang-il, director of the scientific research department at NADA, said the satellite had completed 2,513 orbits and had transmitted 700 photographic images in the day following its launch.

[7][22] However, some experts at the time believed North Korea was still a decade away from having the capability to successfully deliver a nuclear weapon by means of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and the launch showed slow, but continuous, progress.

[24][25][26] It prompted South Korea and the United States to announce that they would explore the possibility of deploying Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD),[27][28] an advanced missile defence system, in South Korea, which is strongly opposed by China[29] and Russia.