North Korea Launches Controversial Satellite

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a satellite with a carrier rocket poetically called Unha-2 (The Milky Way) on April 5, 2009. North Korean continues its ambitious space programme started in the 1980s to turn the country into a “mighty power” by 2012.

Why this Launch?

One of the reasons for rocket launches is rooted in the domestic situation. Although its stability is beyond doubt, national leader Kim Jong-II has not been seen in public for a long time, and is rumoured to be in bad health.

The present launch can well promote pride, patriotism, and hence, his prestige in North Korean minds.

Second, the launch is linked with the US President Barack Obama’s election. It is a good way of attracting Washington’s attention now that it is focused on West Asia, Iran, and the domestic economic crisis. In the past, the result was guaranteed. A North Korean nuclear test in October 2006, for instance, was a catalyst for six-party talks in Beijing with the participation of Russia, the United States, China, both Koreas and Japan. They are aimed at Pyongyang’s irreversible renunciation of nuclear Research and Development (R&D).

Third, this launch will be addressed to South Korea, which has had a conservative Government for a year. This Government has given up South Korea’s 10-year course towards rapprochement and cooperation with Pyongyang.

Achievement in Space Technologies The South Korean public should see North Korea’s achievements in space technologies, on the one hand, and realise that they could become a dangerous weapon if relations between two Koreas are tense, on the other. Apparently, North Korea expects South Koreans to display their displeasure with Lee Myung-bak’s policy and demand resumption of cooperation with Pyongyang.

Fourth, although Pyongyang claims that this will be a civilian launch, the space technologies used in the process can well be used for military purposes — to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles. Nuclear weapons could make these technologies a serious argument in North Korea’s attempts to uphold its interests, for instance, restore relations with the US. South Korea considers even a civilian launch to be a violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1718, which prohibits Pyongyang to develop ballistic missiles.

The Consequences
Most of the world understands the game they are playing. North Korea risks international opprobrium and hopefully worse if the launch proceeds. If the international community sanctions North Korea for the launch, Pyongyang threatened to abrogate an agreement with the US and five other countries to abandon nuclear weapons in return for aid and other concessions. It has also threatened to go to war, if what it calls its peaceful research launch is shot down.

North Korea exploded a small nuclear device in 2006 and has since declared it has "weaponised" its entire plutonium stockpile, which it says totals 57 pounds -– enough to build four or five bombs.

But it is another major technical step to miniaturise these bombs for missiledelivery. Scientists and governments disagree about how far North Korea hasgone toward this goal.
North Korea's test of a nuclear device in 2006 produced such a small explosionthat it was probably only a partial success.

Based on this one test of a nuclear device, it is "not credible" that North Korea could have succeeded in less than three years in miniaturising "an advance design" nuclear warhead. But there is a remote possibility that North Korea has made a warhead of an untested crude design that could produce a relatively small nuclear explosion, akin to its 2006 test. It would be the equivalent of exploding several hundred tons of TNT, ascompared with the exponentially more destructive 25-kiloton blast of anadvanced nuclear warhead.

International Reactions
The launch of the controversial satellite drew swift international condemnation. It prompted the UN Security Council to convene an emergency meeting in which the US, Japan, and South Korea vowed to penalize the North. The US President said the move threatened the security of nations near and far. He described the launch as aclear violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1718, which prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind.
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the given the volatility in the region, as well as a stalemate in interaction among the concerned parties, such a launch is not conducive efforts to promote dialogue, regional peace and stability.

The European Union (EU) stated that these actions place additional strains on regional stability at a time when the unresolved nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula requires mutual confidence-building.

In this climate of views that North Korea had now defied concerted international calls for restraint, China emphasised the need for calm. It also advocated a constructive approach in addressing the issues at stake.