South Korea has sent its first rocket into space from a launch pad in the south - about four months after rival North Korea drew international sanctions for its own rocket launch.

Two American journalists who returned home Wednesday after being held nearly five months in North Korea were separated and fed bad food during their ordeal, but their families never lost faith that they would come back.

North Korea’s official news agency says leader Kim Jong Il has pardoned two American journalists and ordered their release.

The Obama administration has imposed financial sanctions on a North Korean firm accused of involvement in the country’s missile programs.

South Korea says North Korea has fired a fourth missile off its eastern coast. The Joint Chiefs of Staff says three missiles were fired early Saturday and the fourth at about noon.

President Barack Obama says there is an avenue for peace for North Korea if Pyongyang works with other nations around the world to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning that North Korea will face consequences because of “provocative and belligerent” actions that include threatened military attacks against U.S. and South Korean warships.

In news around the world, reaction to North Korea’s nuclear bomb detonation has been swift, and severe. But, as with past rogue actions by the North Koreans, harsh words are hard to turn into actions. ABC News’ Terry McCarthy has more from the South Korean capital of Seoul.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is defending his plans to trim more than a billion dollars from the planned system to build a broad missile shield for the U.S. and its allies. Gates says he’s been a supporter of the concept since the days of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed “Star Wars” by its opponents.