US Condemns North Korea’s Failed Rocket Launch

Ceremony to mark the rocket launch (North Korean TV)

Accusing the communist state of threatening regional security, the US said North Korea had isolated itself still further from the outside world.

In an unusual step, the North admitted the launch had failed but its planned celebrations in Pyongyang went ahead.

After holding closed-door talks, the UN Security Council deplored the launch.

A statement read by the current chair, US ambassador Susan Rice, said the launch was in breach of UNSC resolutions 1718 and 1874.

She said consultations on an appropriate response would continue, “given the urgency of the matter”.

The US has now canceled a proposed food aid deal with North Korea.

Anchor Marco Werman talks with The World’s Asia correspondent Mary Kay Magistad about Pyongyang’s intentions.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a coproduction of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH in Boston. The UN Security Council today called North Korea’s attempted rocket launch deplorable, and that’s because the Security Council viewed the launch as a violation of two resolutions. But you might say it was deplorable for North Korea. The rocket failed and broke up over the Yellow Sea. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad is in Beijing and Mary Kay, as you tweeted, Friday the 13th proved to be unlucky, but what is North Korea’s point of view on this? Is the rocket launch viewed as a failure there?

Mary Kay Magistad: Well, it’s hard to know because they’re not actually saying how they feel about this, but what we know is they did not broadcast it live, that the foreign journalists who were invited in were the last to know, really. They were informed by their editors and even when they scrambled to get down to the press room that the North Koreans had setup for them, it was dark and the big screen that was setup down there presumably to show the rocket launch was still dark as well. The North Koreans interestingly did issue an announcement that it had tried to launch a satellite into orbit and had failed. This is the first time they have [inaudible 1:11]. There have been three long range rocket tests in the past and in the past North Korea just kind of went silent when they didn’t work out.

Werman: What actually were the aims of North Korea in launching this rocket? We hear so much about it being tied to a nuclear program, but what was their aim?

Magistad: Well, there were several different audiences for this and probably several different aims. First, North Korea always like to get attention when it feels that it needs more food aid, when it feels that it wants to have more leverage in negotiations of various types, and it certainly got more attention through this. There’s also the anniversary on Sunday of Kim Il Sung’s birth and there are big festivities, a gala celebration around that. And so this was linked to that, and so it was for a domestic audience. And the other thing is that even with a failure the North Korean’s can learn from it. They can try to perfect their technology, and it also shows potential buyers of that technology elsewhere what they have and how far along they are in trying to get it up to speed.

Werman: So for the North Koreans, not a total failure even though it didn’t go into orbit. There is concern among some western officials that as you know, this rocket program is really North Korea trying to ramp up its nuclear program. And this weekend western officials from six countries along with Iranian officials are meeting to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. How do you think North Korea views meetings like that? I mean surely North Korea is gonna come up at that meeting.

Magistad: Well, sure, and North Korea is very happy that it actually has a nuclear weapons program and has a nuclear weapon. North Korea has already done two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, and there are signs that it’s preparing for another test. Some analysts think that the fact that the test today didn’t go so well may increase the chances that there’ll be a nuclear test sometime soon. There have been signs that they’ve been tunneling near the Chinese border, which is similar behavior to what happened before when there were the other two tests. And some experts believe that North Korea may only need one more test before being able to miniaturize a warhead to fit on a long range missile that could reach the US, although given the results of today’s test, it will still take some time before a missile could reach that far.

Werman: Right, well I was just gonna throw you a military reality check, Mary Kay, should we be worried about a North Korean nuclear program if they can’t get three rockets into orbit?

Magistad: Well, again, even when there’s a failure you can learn from the failure, so at this moment or for next week or next month, no, but it just depends how good they are at learning.

Werman: The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing, thanks so much.

Magistad: Thank you, Marco.

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