UN to hold emergency session over N. Korea rocket launch
by Joseph
Earnest February 8, 2016
Newscast Media NEW
YORK—North Korea said Sunday it had successfully put a satellite into orbit,
with a rocket launch widely condemned as another defiant step towards a
missile capable of striking the US mainland.
The launch, which
violated multiple UN resolutions, amounted to the North doubling down
against an international community already struggling to punish
Pyongyang for its nuclear test barely a month ago.
There was no
immediate external confirmation that the final stage of the
satellite-bearing rocket had successfully achieved orbit, although the
US Strategic Command said it had tracked "the missile launch into
space".
In a special state TV broadcast, a female North Korean
announcer, wearing a traditional Korean hanbok dress, hailed the
"epochal" launch, personally ordered by leader Kim Jong-Un, as a major
success.
While stressing North Korea's right to the "peaceful and
independent" use of space, she also noted that it marked a breakthrough
in boosting national "defense capability".
Condemnation was
swift, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling the launch "deeply deplorable"
and US Secretary of State John Kerry denouncing a "flagrant violation"
of UN resolutions.
The UN Security Council was to meet for an
emergency session later Sunday and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye
urged it to respond quickly with "strong punitive measures".
Permanent
Security Council members Britain, France and Russia all expressed anger
and concern, while North Korea's main diplomatic protector China voiced
"regret".
A surge in military tensions on the Korean peninsula
looked likely, with South Korean and US defense officials announcing
talks on the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system in
South Korea to counter the growing threat from North Korea.
"It is time to move forward on this issue," said Thomas Vandal, commander of the Eighth US Army based in South Korea.
As
well as North Korea, China and Russia are both strongly opposed to any
such deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
system in the region.
The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff,
meanwhile, said upcoming South Korea-US military exercises, which
infuriate Pyongyang every year, would be the largest ever held.
Tightening sanctions
Sunday's
rocket, carrying an Earth observation satellite, blasted off at around
9:00 am Pyongyang time (0030 GMT) and, according to state TV, achieved
orbit 10 minutes later.
Both South Korea and Japan had threatened to shoot it down if it encroached on their territory.
Multiple
UN Security Council resolutions proscribe North Korea's development of
its ballistic missile programme, and its rockets are considered dual-use
technology with both civil and military applications.
The United
States and its allies had warned Pyongyang it would pay a heavy price
for pushing ahead with the launch, but analysts said the North's timing
was intended to minimize the repercussions.
"North Korea likely
calculates that a launch so soon after the nuclear test will probably
only incrementally affect the UN sanctions arising from that test," said
Alison Evans, a senior analyst at IHS Jane's.
China has been resisting the US-led effort to tighten the economic screws on its maverick neighbor.
While
infuriated by North Korea's refusal to curb its nuclear ambitions,
China's overriding concern is avoiding a collapse of the regime in
Pyongyang and the possibility of a US-allied unified Korea on its
border.
North Korea last launched a long-range rocket in December 2012, placing a similar Earth observation satellite in orbit.
Western
intelligence experts say that satellite has never functioned properly,
fuelling suspicion of the mission's scientific veneer.
Despite
Pyongyang's bellicose claims to the contrary, the North is still seen as
being years away from developing a credible inter-continental ballistic
missile (ICBM).
A key challenge it faces is mastering the re-entry technology required to deliver a payload as far away as the US.
"An
ICBM warhead, unlike a satellite, needs to come down as well as go up,"
said aerospace engineer John Schilling, who has closely followed the
North's missile program.
"North Korea has never demonstrated the
ability to build a re-entry vehicle that can survive at even half the
speed an ICBM would require," Schilling said.
"If and when they do, what is presently a theoretical threat will become very real and alarming," he added.
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