Ignoring international appeals, North Korea launched a long-range rocket that could set the country up for increased international sanctions.
Hello, I’m Charlotte Bellis and you’re watching Newsy.com.
While North Korea claims the rocket was simply a communications satellite, experts say it’s effectively a test of a ballistic missile designed to carry a warhead.
On Sunday, the United Nations Security Council met in an emergency session, but members couldn’t agree on a statement criticizing the launch.
“China and Russia's tough stance dealt a setback to efforts [by] the United States, Japan and their allies to push for penalties against North Korea.” (Washington Post)
North Korea’s official Central News Agency applauded the launch.
“The satellite is of decisive significance in promoting [the] scientific research[es] into the peaceful use of outer space and solving scientific and technological problems for the launch of practical satellites in the future.” (Korean Central News Agency)
The New York Times called the launch a failure because the upper stages of the supposed satellite fell into the Pacific Ocean before they could go into orbit.
“Analysts dismissed the idea that the rocket firing could represent a furtive success, calling the failure consistent with past North Korean fumbles and suggesting it might reveal a significant quality control problem in one of the world’s most isolated nations.” (The New York Times)
The Korea Herald in South Korea said the launch was “less than successful”:
“[North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il has at least demonstrated his country's capability to fire a rocket over the Japanese archipelago.” (The Korea Herald)
The Japan Times focused on its military’s restraint in not shooting down the rocket despite the fact it flew over Japanese territory and parts of it landed in the Sea of Japan.
“Prime Minister Taro Aso slammed Pyongyang calling the launch a violation of resolutions adopted by the U.N. Security Council.
"’North Korea carried out an extremely provocative act and went ahead with the launch despite repeated warnings…North Korea clearly violated a Security Council resolution.’" (The Japan Times)
On Fox News, Newt Gingrich said that success or failure, the United States should have disabled the rocket.
“North Korea is a totally irresponsible dictatorship run by a person out of touch with reality and I think to say have another meeting of the UN to have another paper resolution to have meaningless effect is very dangerous.” (FOX News)
Do you think North Korea should be sanctioned for launching the rocket? Or do you think response has been overblown since the rocket didn’t even get into orbit?
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