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Then there is US President Barack Obama's policy of "strategic patience" with North Korea, which in practice had meant doing nothing much. The North's rocket launch was met with protests in the SouthĪgain, hardly a good result for Pyongyang, which this year has resumed long-stalled talks towards diplomatic relations with Tokyo - a prospect now more distant than ever. Japan too has an imminent election on 16 December, which looks set to bring the nationalist conservative former Prime Minister Shinto Abe back to power. The rocket is also a poke in the eye for Japan, which had threatened to shoot it down but in the event wisely held its fire. That is not the outcome Pyongyang professes to want. Past experience suggests that North Korean provocations usually boost the conservative vote in South Korea. A week from today, South Koreans will elect their next president who takes office on 25 February for a five-year term.īesides distracting attention from that, the irony is that politically, the rocket could backfire. This also rains on another parade in Seoul. A third attempt due on 29 November was put off at the last minute until the New Year. Seoul's own space rocket programme - with technical aid from Russia, interestingly - has been a damp squib so far. This rocket launch is especially well-timed to accomplish that on a whole range of fronts.įor a start this is one field, perhaps the only one, where North Korea can now boast of doing better than the hated South. More important to the regime is to cock a snook at its several enemies. They would also like to eat better and be warm in the harsh Korean winter, so that glow of pride might not last long or run deep. Many North Koreans may feel genuinely proud of their country's achievement and perhaps of their leaders. Jul 2006: North Korea test-fires a long-range Taepodong-2 missile US said it failed shortly after take-off.Apr 2009: Three-stage rocket launched North Korea says it was a success, US says it failed and fell into the sea.
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Apr 2012: Three-stage rocket explodes just after take-off, falls into sea.Dec 2012: North Korea launches three-stage rocket, says it successfully put a satellite into orbit US defence officials confirm object in orbit.Better than SouthĪt home, it marks almost a year since "dear leader" Kim Jong-il died last 17 December, and a year since his third son, the seemingly genial Kim Jong-un, was catapulted into power.Ĭontinue reading the main story North Korea's rocket launches This success ticks so many boxes for them, even though on closer inspection it may seem a rather short-sighted and Pyrrhic victory. North Korean media are ecstatic, and no wonder. So the world was taken by surprise today. Some satellite images seemed to show the rocket being dismantled, but this must have been a feint. They had announced that the launch window would be extended to 29 December owing to technical problems. North Korea likes to not only defy the world but also wrong-foot it, and here too they have scored. All previous launches have been in spring or summer. And midwinter, with snow on the ground, is hardly the best season to do so. Experts thought it would take North Korea at least a year to assess April's failure and try again. Whether the satellite is functioning is unknown at the time of writing. This time, however, South Korea and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) both confirmed that an object apparently achieved orbit. Twice before, in 1998, then after a long gap in 2009, North Korea has claimed to successfully launch Kwangmyongsong satellites, which it said are orbiting the earth emitting "Song of General Kim Il-sung" and similar ditties.īut no-one has ever been able to detect those satellites.
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North Koreans celebrated the rocket's success on the streets The rocket is the same, so in effect, this doubles as a missile test anyway. Some even doubted whether the satellite was for real, or a cover for a long-range missile test. The "reptile press", as Pyongyang likes to call us, were mostly derisive, about this and North Korea generally. An earlier attempt in April - which unusually foreign media were invited to inspect in advance at the same Sohae launch site used today - embarrassingly failed when the Unha-3 rocket exploded 90 seconds after lift-off. The same risk-taking which makes them winners at international circus contests - quadruple somersault on the high trapeze, anyone? - was evident in today's successful satellite launch. By most measures, North Korea is a failed state - though long-standing hopes or fears of its collapse have so far proved wide of the mark.Īmid a delicate third-generation succession, and with most of its people underfed, this fierce little dinosaur of a regime could do with some good news.