North Korea successfully fired a long-range missile early today, defying international warnings as the regime of Kim Jong-un took a big step forward in its quest to develop a nuclear missile.
While the rocket launch will enhance the credentials of young leader Kim, who took power after his father Kim Jong-il's death a year ago, it is also likely to bring fresh sanctions against the country and further complicate relations between North Korea, its neighbours and the West.
Residents walk in Pyongyang, capital of isolated and impoverished North Korea, which launched its second long-range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday and may have finally succeeded in putting a satellite into space. (Kyodo/Reuters) Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said the missile launch was likely an attempt by North Korea to show control and "flex some muscle," presenting a "huge challenge for regional security."
"It's just a real step backwards and one that should cause us all real concern," Baird said. "Anyone who had hoped that the new president would change course from his father is going to be very disappointed."
The United States, South Korea and Japan were also quick to condemn the morning launch, which they see as a test of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile that could one day threaten the U.S. Pyongyang says it was merely a peaceful effort to put a satellite into orbit.
Going forward, Baird said it was "better to overestimate than to underestimate this measure," as Canada continues to work with its key allies on this issue.
Even China, North Korea's closest ally, expressed "regret" that North Korea went ahead with the launch "in spite of the extensive concerns of international community," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.
The White House called it a "highly provocative act that threatens regional security."
The timing of the launch came as something of a surprise after Pyongyang had indicated technical problems might delay it. That it succeeded after several failed attempts was an even greater surprise.
"North Korea will now turn its attention to developing bigger rockets with heavier payloads," said Chae Yeon-seok, a rocket expert at South Korea's state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute. "Its ultimate aim will be putting a nuclear warhead on the tip."
A spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that the launch was a violation of a Security Council resolution restricting the use of ballistic missile technology.
The UN chief is in close contact with all governments concerned.
Dancing in Pyongyang's streets
The Unha-3 rocket fired just before 10 a.m. local time, and was detected heading south by a South Korean destroyer patrolling the Yellow Sea. Japanese officials said the first rocket stage fell into the Yellow Sea west of the Korean Peninsula; a second stage fell into the Philippine Sea hundreds of kilometres farther south.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) later confirmed that North Korea did appear to have put an object into space.
"Initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit," NORAD said in a statement.
About two hours after the launch, North Korea's state media proclaimed it a success, prompting dancing in the streets of the capital. State media called it a "momentous event" in the country's scientific development.
Rocket tests are seen as crucial to advancing North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions. Pyongyang is thought to have a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs, but experts believe it lacks the ability to make a warhead small enough to mount on a missile that could threaten the United States.
The success of this launch "allows the North Koreans to determine what kind of delivery vehicle they could use for a potential nuclear warhead," said retired air force colonel Cedric Leighton, a weapons expert and intelligence analyst.
The UN Security Council will hold closed-door consultations on the launch Wednesday, according to the UN Mission for Morocco, which holds the rotating council presidency.
North Korea has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage, long-range rocket.
Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology. This is the fifth attempt at a long-range launch since 1998, when Pyongyang sent a rocket hurtling over Japan. Previous launches of three-stage rockets failed, although North Korea claims its 1998 and 2009 launches were successful. A similar North Korean launch in April broke apart shortly after liftoff.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said officials would likely have to wait a day or so to see if the United States can track anything that might have been placed in orbit by North Korea.
Decades spent on long-range rocket
Success would be defined as "something that completes at least one orbit of the Earth," he said. But "clearly this is much more successful than their last attempt. It's at least as good as they've ever done. They've proved the basic design of it."
David Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said North Korea showed some technical capability getting the rockets' stages to work Wednesday.
"Politically, however, it will certainly have an impact on the way other countries view North Korea," Wright said.
North Korea, under new leader Kim, has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy.
'It's really good news. It clearly testifies that our country has the capability to enter space.'—Jon Il Gwang, Pyongyang resident
Kim took power after Kim Jong-il died on Dec. 17 last year, and the launch is seen by some as an attempt to commemorate that. It also comes less than a week before presidential elections in South Korea and about a month before U.S. President Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second term.
North Korean television and radio broadcast word of the launch, and there were vehicles with loudspeakers driving around Pyongyang announcing the news. Customers in the coffee shop at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel broke into applause during a special television broadcast, while elsewhere people danced and asked each other: "Have you heard the news?"
"It's really good news. It clearly testifies that our country has the capability to enter space," said Jon Il Gwang, a Pyongyang resident. "I think our country should continue launching man-made satellites in the future in order to further advance the position of our country as a science and technology power."
The launches Wednesday and in April came from a site on the west coast, in the village of Tongchang-ri, about 56 kilometres from the Chinese border city of Dandong, across the Yalu River from North Korea.
The site is 70 kilometres from the North's main Yongbyon nuclear complex, and is said to have better roads and facilities than previous sites and to allow a southerly flight path meant to keep the rocket from flying over other countries.
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