Rocket Launch: North Korea's Latest Attempt at Blackmail

Today at 4:22 p.m. (Korea Standard Time), North Korea confirmed its rocket launch earlier that morning, saying that "communications satellite Kwangmyongsong 2 (Bright Star 2)" has successfully entered into orbit. North Korea stated that the rocket was launched at 11:20 a.m., and the satellite entered orbit at 11:29:02 a.m. Although North Korea stated this afternoon that the rocket was launched at 11:20 a.m., the South Korea Presidential Office announced this morning at 11:46 a.m. that the rocket was launched at 11:30:15 a.m. during a post-launch press briefing. As of now, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency says the "neighboring countries monitoring the launch have "no evidence yet" to prove North Korea's claim, according to a senior Seoul official said on condition of anonymity."

At 4:22 p.m., North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a report that stated, "Scientists and technicians of the DPRK have succeeded in putting satellite Kwangmyongsong 2, an experimental communications satellite, into orbit by means of carrier rocket Unha 2 (Milky Way 2) under the state long-term plan for the development of outer space." The KCNA report claimed the three-stage rocket Unha 2 blasted off from a launch pad located in Musadan-ri, North North Hamgyeong Province, (on the country's northeast coast) at 11:20 a.m. and put the satellite safely into orbit 2 seconds past 11:29 a.m. The report also said that the Kwangmyongsong 2 satellite is now following an "elliptic orbit, at the angle of inclination of 40.6 degrees at 490 km perigee and 1 426 km apogee," adding its cycle is 104 minutes and 12 seconds. The KCNA said, "the satellite is going round on its routine orbit. It is sending to the earth the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans Song of General Kim Il-sung and Song of General Kim Jong-il and measured information at 470 MHz. By the use of the satellite the relay communications is now underway by UHF frequency band." It added, "the carrier rocket and the satellite developed through our indigenous wisdom and technology are the shining result of efforts to develop the nation's space science and technology on a higher level." The KCNA report also said today's space launch will boost the country's campaign to build a strong nation by 2012 as it "seeks to become a great, prosperous and powerful nation" by that year -- 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il's father. It added, "this is powerfully encouraging the Korean people all out in the general advance."

According to a Yonhap report, a South Korean government official stated, "the South Korean government assumes the North Korean rocket was a space vehicle, not a missile, but it is not yet known whether it was carrying a satellite and whether it entered orbit as North Korea claims." He also said, "it has not been confirmed yet whether the North Korean report is true or not."

Today's launch itself has been in development since February 3, when the South Korean Yonhap news reported that North Korea is preparing to test fire its long-range missile. North Korea's position has been that it is launching an experimental communications satellite. Japan, South Korea, and the United States have been insisting that the North Koreans are using the rocket launch as a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test. World Leaders (with the exception of the Chinese -- China said "it has taken notice of North Korea's rocket launch," and it urged all relevant parties to maintain "cool-headedness and restraint."urges all parties to maintain restraint over the matter." -- and the Russians) have criticized the launch as being provocative and in violation of the UNSC Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind.

Looking back, we can link today's event to January 13, 2009, when a spokesman for the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement that the US should first normalize relations with North Korea as a precondition for its denuclearization and that it will hold onto its nuclear weapons as long as the US backs South Korea with its own atomic arsenal. The statement also demanded that if “the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the issue to be settled only when the DPRK shows nuclear weapons,” then North Korea must be able to also verify the presence of nuclear weapons in South Korea as well and that the same rule should be applied to US troops stationed in South Korea. I have to believe that today's event was planned well before January 13, but I really think this was the first glimpse of North Korea's well planned campaign to conduct today's launch. I wrote about the likelihood of North Korean ballistic missile test in a piece I wrote and posted on my blog earlier this year.

Really, to me, when I look at today's event, the core of the issue is not whether North Korea launched a satellite or tested a ballistic missile. The core of the issue is that North Korea is behaving this way to blackmail the United States and the international community so that it can benefit from it.