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North Korea’s Satellite Launch Is 'Deeply Deplorable,' Says UN

“The more tests they do, the more they learn, and they’re beavering away trying to improve their technology.”
South Korean soldiers watch the North Korean launch on TV. Image: AP

Despite widespread condemnation from the international community, North Korea launched Kwangmyongsong-4, which it claims is an "Earth observation satellite," on an Unha carrier rocket Saturday night. The event was deemed a "complete success" by the nation's officials, and the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite is now being tracked in a polar orbit around the planet.

The news comes just five days after North Korea revealed its intention to launch the satellite between February 8 and 25, which sparked controversy around the world. North Korea's burgeoning spaceflight program is widely suspected to be a front for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which is particularly concerning because dictator Kim Jong-un has also directed his country to continue experimenting with nuclear weapons.

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Naturally, North Korea's neighbors are alarmed by the recent uptick in sabre-rattling. Japan's defense minister threatened to shoot down any North Korean rocket that broached Japanese airspace, while South Korean officials declared that North Korea would pay "a severe price" if it went ahead with the launch.

Now that North Korea has shrugged off these warnings, the exact parameters of that price are set to be hashed out in an emergency meeting of the United Nations scheduled for late Sunday.

"It is deeply deplorable that [North Korea] has conducted a launch using ballistic missile technology in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions on 6 February 2016 despite the united plea of the international community against such an act," said UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

CNN report on the launch of Kwangmyongsong-4. Video: CNN/YouTube

Secretary of state John Kerry likewise denounced the launch as a "a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolutions." Even China, North Korea's strongest ally, has condemned the launch. In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry said it "regrets that the DPRK insisted on using ballistic missile technology to carry out the launch in spite of the pervasive opposition of the international community."

These strong rebukes from around the world are likely to translate into harsher economic sanctions against North Korea, and perhaps even the construction of an advanced missile defense system in South Korea.

At this point, most analysts do not think that North Korea has the capability to launch long range ICBMs. But the fact that the Unha rocket used to boost Kwangmyongsong-4 into orbit is an obvious riff on the North Korean ballistic missile Taepodong-2 suggests that the nation is covertly developing missile technology and passing it off as benign scientific research.

If Kim Jong-un persists with ICBM-related maneuvers—for example, testing out reentry methods—the veneer of his supposedly "peaceful" space program will continue to slip, and harsher pressures will have to be induced on the nation.

"The more tests they do, the more they learn, and they're beavering away trying to improve their technology," international security expert Jim Walsh told the Washington Post. "It also means that at some level, they're still able to evade sanctions."