North Korea criticized for launching long-range rocket

NoKor’s Unha-3 rocket at the launching pad

There is no doubt North Korea is a paradox.

People are malnourished, yet in the midst are scientists.

It is an impoverished nation, yet it has the resources to build rockets and launch them. Whether failure or success, who cares.

The most important thing for North Korea is that their recalcitrant leaders are making a statement with defiant words and provocative actions and it is getting across the heads of the free world – to their dismay.

Such is what happened a few days ago when this rogue nation successfully launched a long-range rocket to space supposedly to ‘put a weather satellite into orbit.’

It did not only ruffle the feathers of the western world powers, but the blast-off further strain tensions in the region.

South Korea has expressed “grave concern” about the launching.

A spokesman for Japan’s government called the launch “extremely regrettable”, adding: ”Our country cannot tolerate this. We strongly protest to North Korea.”

Washington called it a ‘highly provocative act that threatens regional security.’

The British government decried the fact that North Korea opted to prioritize the launching over improving the livelihood of its people.

Even China, North Korea’s closest ally, expressed ‘regret’ that North Korea went ahead with the launch in spite of the extensive concerns of international community, which is the instability of the region.

The US and its allies, including the UK, believe the rocket launch is a straightforward test of North Korea’s ballistic missile technology. They say the “space program” claim is simply a cover.

North Korea has been conducting underground nuclear tests for some time. A combination of those tests with the successful launch and flight of a rocket would give the country somewhat of a credible nuclear deterrent. If it is creating ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, it could threaten areas as far away as the west coast of the US.

American space expert Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, believes the Unha-3 rocket has indeed delivered a satellite to space.

Based on his own calculations, he said an object identified by US space command was from the North Korean satellite.

(Update: North Korea may have put a satellite in orbit, but a day after it was launched, it was reported by U.S. officials that said satellite is now ‘tumbling out of control.’ This maybe bad news for the rogue country, but it is not exactly good news for the rest of the world for the simple reason that this tumbling object in space has now become a collision risk to other satellites.)

Rocket launch failure humiliates NoKor leader

 

The Unha-3 rocket which ended in failure

North Korea’s much-hyped launching of a long-range rocket, amidst warnings from the international community and concerned pleadings from neighboring Asian countries not to proceed with it, ended in an embarrassing failure for the young, untested, yet defiant leader Kim Jong Un.

Whether it was a flaw in ballistic missile technology or a divine intervention, the fact is it has given much sense of relief to many countries that the launching did not succeed.

The West and neighbors of the most isolated nation on earth said they suspected the action was a precursor to a nuclear test, debunking all the time the rogue nation’s assertion that it was for putting an observation satellite into orbit.

The rocket’s projected trajectory placed South Korea, Japan and the Philippines on heightened alert in case the launching could potentially endanger citizens and property in those nations.

The Japanese government, which has been monitoring closely the launching, said the missile disintegrated into pieces while still in North Korean territory or over South Korean waters.

The failed launch of the Unha-3 rocket happened in an unpropitious time when it was meant to dedicate its success to the 100-year anniversary of late founding father Kim Il-Sung’s birth.

The young, rotund Kim Jong Un

But, most of all, it was an ominous signal beamed to the whole world, and most especially to the Western powers, that the young, rotund-face egomaniac of a leader is capable of filling up the shoes and leading North Korea the way his father, Kim Jong-Il and grandfather, Kim Il-Sung did before him.

Alas, it did not go the way it was planned.

With this humiliating failure in Kim Jong-Un’s nascent leadership, will his pricked ego be a lesson in humility or will it turn him instead to be more of a monster and spend more money trying to develop and perfect the long range missile, holding hostage the international community while his people continue dying in starvation?

Could the international community depend on China, NoKor’s big brother, in restraining and taming this malevolent and capricious hermit country and turning it into a responsible member in the world of nations?

Will Russia be authoritative enough to be able to compel NoKor to attend to the needs of its people instead of engaging all the time in provocative acts, and wasting its money on weapons and propaganda displays?

NoKor should start realizing that there is more to gain for the country and its citizens when integrating with the world community rather than staying isolated and chanting the mantra of their self-sustaining policy.

For the moment, however, one can’t help but wonder how many heads are lined up on the chopping board for making the rocket launch a failure and humiliating Kim Jong Un? And whose heads is it going to be?