North Korea plans new rocket launch

[Reece]

North Korea said it would carry out its second rocket launch of 2012 as its youthful leader Kim Jong-un flexes his muscles a year after his father's death, in a move that South Korea and the United States swiftly condemned as a provocation.

North Korea's state news agency announced the decision to launch another space satellite on Saturday, just a day after Kim met a senior delegation from China's Communist Party in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

China, under new leadership, is North Korea's only major political backer and has continually urged peace on the Korean peninsula, where the North and South remain technically at war after an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, ended the 1950-53 conflict.

No comment on the planned launch was available from Beijing's foreign ministry.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the launch plan as a provocative threat to the Asia-Pacific region that would violate United Nations resolutions imposed on Pyongyang after past missile tests.

"A North Korean 'satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act that threatens peace and security in the region," she said in a written statement.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said, "North Korea must abide by its international obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions that clearly articulate what it can and cannot do with respect to missile technologies."

Seoul's foreign ministry called the move a "grave provocation." Japan's Kyodo news agency said Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda had ordered ministries to be on alert for the launch.

"North Korea wants to tell China that it is an independent state by staging the rocket launch and it wants to see if the United States will drop its hostile policies," said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Affairs at Seoul National University.

North Korea is banned from conducting missile or nuclear-related activities under U.N. resolutions imposed after earlier nuclear and missile tests. The country says its rockets are used to put satellites into orbit for peaceful purposes, but that assertion is not widely accepted outside of Pyongyang.

Washington and Seoul believe that the impoverished North is testing long-range missile technology with the aim of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Pyongyang's threats are aimed, in part, at winning concessions and aid from Washington, analysts say.

POLITICS AND ANNIVERSARIES

The failed April rocket launch took place to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung and the latest test will take place close to the December 17 date of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il.

It will also come as South Korea gears up for a December 19 presidential election in a vote that pits a supporter of closer engagement with Pyongyang against the daughter of South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee.

The April test was condemned by the United Nations, although taking action against the North is hard as China refuses to endorse further sanctions against Pyongyang.

North Korea is already one of the most heavily sanctioned states on earth thanks to its nuclear programme.

Pyongyang has few tools to pressure the outside world to take it seriously due to its diplomatic isolation and its puny economy.

The state that Kim Jong-un inherited last December after the death of his father boasts a 1.2 million-member military, but its population of 23 million, many malnourished, supports an economy worth just $40 billion annually in purchasing power parity terms, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

"The North's calculation may be that they have little to lose by going ahead with it at this point," said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.

Baek said the test planned for December would likely be no more successful in launching a satellite than the April one that crashed into the sea between China and North Korea after flying just 120 km (75 miles).

"Kim Jong-un may be taking a big gamble trying to come back from the humiliating failure in April and in the process trying to raise the morale for the military," Baek said.

North Korea's space agency said on Saturday that it had worked on "improving the reliability and precision of the satellite and carrier rocket" since April's launch.

[Kavensky]

This can't be happening.

 :ps: (out of topic)

The same happaned in the game Homefront, it's like in that game. The presidents son takes over the leadership of Korea, then after 1 year his father dies and he wants to avenge for it by making America a land of 'shit'...

[Halt]

If Kim Jong-un thinks the rest of the world are gonna stand for things like this he's crazy.

[Dolfagr]

I don't see anything wrong with launching a satellite as long as US and other countries have dozens of them, probably violating millions of personal lives.

[Halt]

That's not the point, it doesn't really matter whether it's a satellite or a mission to the moon.
The point is they're doing it and they don't care what anyone else thinks or says.

[Dolfagr]

That's not the point, it doesn't really matter whether it's a satellite or a mission to the moon.
The point is they're doing it and they don't care what anyone else thinks or says.

Neither the Iraqi invasion was legal or the NATO bombing of Serbia (No UN resolution) yet they did not care what anyone else thinks or says. Let's not complicate things though.

[Chase]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/11/world/asia/north-korea-rocket-launch/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Japan should have shot it down when they had the chance...

[Mikal]

If Kim Jong-un thinks the rest of the world are gonna stand for things like this he's crazy.

Why wouldn't they? I can't see anyone going to war with North Korea just because they wan't to launch a damn satallite, they constantly got America up their asses as it is, sure North Korea is probibly the last place on Earth you'd probibly want to live, but they should still be allowed to do things freely, why did everyone assume this rocket launch was a threat? Maybe they just wan't better quality TV.

[Teddy]

Why wouldn't they? I can't see anyone going to war with North Korea just because they wan't to launch a damn satallite, they constantly got America up their asses as it is, sure North Korea is probibly the last place on Earth you'd probibly want to live, but they should still be allowed to do things freely, why did everyone assume this rocket launch was a threat? Maybe they just wan't better quality TV.

Because they want to make a rocket that can actually works  and can reach a target. If you think they are testing these just to  get new episodes of Glee in HD then my friend you are dearly misled.

[Reece]

World War 3 just got all the more likely.

[JDC]

...sure North Korea is probibly the last place on Earth you'd probibly want to live, but they should still be allowed to do things freely

That's just like saying it's okay to let one of your neighbors play with knives, bombs, and other deadly weapons in his backyard just because he should be allowed to do it freely.

[AK47]

World War 3 just got all the more likely.

Indeed.

[~Legend~]

You could say the allegations are justified based on past history, but it's a bit imposing having outside influence try and manage what you are conducting, provided it does not involve them. Who can say, hopefully it isn't going to escalate into something more.


P.S. Was just hearing about this earlier today in the news. It's kind of annoying how some news broadcasters seem to enjoy taking a very one sided approach. Saying this as the BBC over in the UK seem to be common culprits of trying to pick out other nation's so called "failures" and lighting them up more than anyone asked.

[Mikal]

P.S. Was just hearing about this earlier today in the news. It's kind of annoying how some news broadcasters seem to enjoy taking a very one sided approach. Saying this as the BBC over in the UK seem to be common culprits of trying to pick out other nation's so called "failures" and lighting them up more than anyone asked.

Thats because BBC is party owned by the British government and the British government will definatly make a country it doesn't like looked bad to millions of viewers across the UK. :razz:

[~Legend~]

Thats because BBC is party owned by the British government and the British government will definatly make a country it doesn't like looked bad to millions of viewers across the UK. :razz:

They are associated, though in practice have broadcasting freedom to an extent and are meant to be an impartial service.

I like a lot of their work but when it comes to foreign news I'm not really their fan.
With this report they were almost condemning N. Korea themselves and talking about "past failures" which made them look bad.