"If you're an off-kilter dictator who wants to convince the world that your small, secretive nation is a world power, you launch a rocket into space. It's what you do ..."
We're used to joking about Kim Jong Un, North Korea's eccentric supreme leader. But his use of an Unha missile to launch a satellite into space last weekend is not funny. It's frightening. The world needs to take it seriously.
Even China, North Korea's closest ally and best apologist, has expressed concern. However, China makes clear that its preferred method of dealing with North Korea will be at the negotiating table. And since it functions pretty much as North Korea's bank, the sanctions the U.S. Congress has approved are unlikely to slow things down unless the Chinese intervene.
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The Obama administration wants the U.N. Security Council to take
strong action. National security adviser Susan Rice said the launch,
following so closely North Korea's fourth nuclear test, "represents yet
another destabilizing and provocative action and is a flagrant violation
of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions."U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the launch "deeply deplorable" and urged North Korea to stop its provocative acts. Oh, that'll help.
As one might expect, both South Korea and Japan are apoplectic. The leaders of both called the launch "unacceptable," an understatement for neighbors in far closer range of rockets than we are.
North Korea maintains that the satellite launch is for scientific purposes. But experts believe this was a missile test disguised as a satellite launch. Pyongyang has launched some short- and medium-range missiles but had not yet found a reliable means of delivery to long-range targets. Like, say, the West Coast of the United States.
The rocket launched Sunday would need modifications to make it an intercontinental ballistic missile, which must be able to return from the upper atmosphere to deliver a nuclear payload to a target. But it shows Korea is working toward long-range strike capability.
All of this seems part of a plan by Kim to force the world, especially the United States, to take North Korea seriously as a world power. We should take him seriously. The world needs to do more to keep North Korea from more military progress, even though sanctions and other actions are hard on the Korean people. And China is key.
Kim set off an underground nuclear test within two days of his January birthday. The rocket launch was within a few days of the birthday of his late father, Kim Jong Il.
We can only imagine what Kim has planned to celebrate the mid-April birthday of his grandfather, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung. We hope China is watching.
Daily Democrate
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