North Korea may follow up failed rocket launch with more provocative nuclear test, experts say
(CBS/AP) PYONGYANG, North Korea - After North Korea's rocket launch ended in failure, its next move could be even more provocative: a nuclear test.
That's what North Korea did following launches in 2006 and 2009. Experts suspect the government is under even more pressure to do so now after its latest rocket burst apart after liftoff Friday.
"This failure makes it even more likely that the North will now attempt a nuclear test in the not-too-distant future," American analyst Ralph Cossa, the president of Pacific Forum CSIS, said. "The rocket launch was supposed to demonstrate the regime's power and technical prowess. A nuclear test may now be seen as even more necessary, not just to further perfect their weapons capability, but also to save face."
The rocket launch had been hailed as a moment of national pride, but it disintegrated over the Yellow Sea, earning it embarrassment as well as condemnation from a host of nations that deemed it a covert test of missile technology.
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The launch is a setback for new leader Kim Jong Un, whose government had projected the satellite as a show of strength amid North Korea's persistent economic hardship. Kim is solidifying power following the death of his father, longtime leader Kim Jong Il, four months ago.
The U.N. Security Council said it deplores the launch, saying it violated two council resolutions.
In a rare move, Pyongyang acknowledged that the rocket did not deliver a satellite, but it also pressed ahead with grandiose propaganda in praise of the ruling Kim family.
The United States and South Korea declared the early morning launch a failure minutes after the rocket shot out from the North's west coast. North Korea acknowledged that some four hours later in an announcement broadcast on state TV, saying the satellite that the rocket was carrying did not enter orbit.
The three-stage rocket's first stage burned, but the second failed to ignite. Powered flight lasted around 100 seconds, with the first stage splashing down 100 miles west of Seoul, South Korea, and the rest of the rocket traveling about 450 miles before running out of momentum and exploding on reentry into the atmosphere. The entire operation lasted less than nine minutes, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman discusses North Korea's rocket launch, saying the communist nation needs to "grow up and knock it off." Watch at left.The failed launch has now sparked an international search effort for the debris to gain insight into what went wrong and what rocket technology the country has.
Two South Korean destroyers, equipped with missiles that could have shot the rocket down if necessary, began scouring the seas for debris from the rocket along with South Korean helicopters, CBS Radio News reporter Don Kirk reports Seoul.
The Japanese government said defense teams were working with the U.S. military to analyze the rocket's flight route and any debris reclaimed from the failed rocket launch, CBS Radio News reporter Lucy Craft reports from Tokyo.
U.S. Navy minesweepers and other ships were in the area.
North Korea had held up the launch as a scientific achievement and even a gift for its late founder, Kim Il Sung, two days before the 100th anniversary of his birth. It pressed ahead even as world leaders vowed to take action in the U.N. Security Council against what they called a flagrant violation of international resolutions prohibiting North Korea from developing its nuclear and missile programs.
The rocket's destruction suggests the country has yet to master the technology needed to build long-range missiles that could threaten the United States. Still, worries remain about North Korea's nuclear program amid reports that it may be planning an atomic test soon.
Kim Jong Un has been given several important titles intended to strengthen his rule this week. Hours after the failed launch, state media said he was named first chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission during a meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly.
Kim Jong Il, who ruled the country in his capacity as chairman of the commission, was given the title of "chairman for eternity."
Outsiders, meanwhile, focused on the launch, which was condemned by the foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting in Washington, including Russia.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the launch "is in direct violation" of Security Council sanctions "and threatens regional stability," spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
The U.N.'s most powerful body, the Security Council, said in a brief press statement after a closed meeting on Friday that members agreed to continue consultations "on an appropriate response."
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, the current council president, refused to speculate on whether a response might include new sanctions against North Korea. The council imposed sanctions against North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006 and stepped up sanctions after its second test in 2009.
"We think a credible reaction is important," Rice said.
Washington said it was suspending plans to contribute food aid to the North in exchange for a rollback of its nuclear programs.
White House spokesman Jay Carney also said on Thursday before the launch that "the clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that a launch of a ballistic missile would represent makes it virtually impossible for us to go ahead with" the agreed-upon package of food aid to North Korea.
The Obama administration believes U.S. sanctions against North Korea, particularly on its ability to obtain advanced electronics for guidance systems, have restricted its proliferation activities.
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We, as a nation, have no right to bully or badger other nations in pursuit of acquiring and/or developing their own independent technologies. Of the develop nations with hi-tech war implements, the USA uses them in actual war more that any nation on the planet. If anyone should be barred from the development of weapons of mass destruction and/or delivery systems, it is us!
Let us not forget that we are the only nation to use nuclear weapons during wartime. Regardless of the excuses for having used nuclear warheads, we used them and bear that distinction in infamy.
We may not agree with their political machine and how it works, but ours is a far cry from perfect...especially since lobbyists can legally exist and corporations can have the same constitutional rights as a citizen to support their political candidates.
North Korea must be given their place and be credited for their contributions. The USA has equally and often greater offenses documented in the international political arena.
In the USA, a booster rocket failure is still a reported event that plagues us. Few reasons exist to label the experiences differently.
Look who are talking? ungrateful borrowers of the Chinese money in trillion of dollars....Let me guess you must be an America...
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Let me assure you, China bought treasury notes just like everyone else. When the bills come do, they will be paid.
It is of my opinion that we should pay Chinese holders of US treasury bonds ASAP, throw out Chinese ambassadors...bomb China back to the stone ages along with our old factories there your leadership managed to negotiate from our treasonous leaders, both political and industrial.
It would be wiser for them to negotiate a reunification than to attempt to be a brainwashed nation.
Germany was separated, and now unified...peacefully.
The people in the north can do the same with guidance...
They look much better fitter than you obese Americans..
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Perhaps so, but the average N.K. person is in fact now over 1 inch smaller, and of course lighter than the person from the south...that's what generational starvation yeilds...and wait till they start to eat, shorter lifespans...