Stephan Haggard on North Korea's Motive for Second Satellite Launch
North Korea Plans Satellite Launch: Why Now?
12/05/2012
Austin Ramzy,
Time
Among the things that North Korea does that rile its neighbors, the satellite-launch attempt is emerging as a favorite of the totalitarian regime. In the year since Kim Jong Il’s death, the government led by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, has attempted one launch and announced that it will try again from Dec. 10 to 22. North Korea is banned from such acts under U.N. Security Council resolutions put in place after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests, as a satellite launch is also a convenient way for Pyongyang to test its ballistic-missile capabilities. The North Korean government has tried to put a friendly face on its plan to put an earth-observation satellite into orbit, saying it “will greatly encourage the Korean people” and put its “technology for the use of space for peaceful purposes on a new, higher stage.”
The U.S. State Department called a possible launch “a highly provocative act that threatens peace and security in the region.” South Korea expressed “grave concern,” while Japan called on Pyongyang to exercise restraint and call off the launch. China, North Korea’s sole major ally, was more reserved in its criticism of the move, saying it was “concerned” about the announcement but adding that North Korea “is entitled to peaceful use of the outer space, which is subject to relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions.
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Stephan Haggard is the director of the Korea-Pacific Program at IR/PS, where he specializes in the Korean economy. In 2011 Haggard published Witness to Transformation: Refugee Insights into North Korea with co-author Marcus Noland, with whom he had previously authored Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform. Dr. Haggard writes the "North Korea: Witness to Transformation" blog at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
