U.N. statement calls North Korea launch "deplorable"
From Tim Schwarz, CNN
updated 8:54 AM EDT, Fri April 13, 2012
Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) -- Officials from the United States and the United Nations say the U.N. Security
Council will meet Friday to discuss North Korea's botched long-range missile launch -- an act a U.N officails called
deplorable and destabilizing despite its failure.
Amid concerns that North Korea will try to recover from the embarrassing failure with a nuclear test or military move,
a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the secretive country's regime not to "undertake
further provocative actions that will heighten tension in the region."
The missile launch was heralded by North Korea as "an inspiring deed and an event of historic significance." The
missile broke apart shortly after launch Friday morning, then fell into the ocean.
North Korea said the missile was designed to carry an observation satellite into orbit. But the United States, South
Korea and Japan said that was a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.
The launch drew condemnation from United States and countries in the region, as well as an unusual admission of
failure from Pyongyang. The normally secretive regime has previously insisted that failed launches had actually
been successful.
"Scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure," the official Korean Central News
Agency said in a report, which was also read out in a news broadcast on state-run television.
North Korea had made much of the launch, which coincided with celebrations surrounding the 100th anniversary of
the birth of its late founding leader, Kim Il-sung.
The regime had invited journalists and space experts from around the world to view the launch pad and the
purported satellite.
North Korea has staged nuclear tests or other events after previous missile-test failures, according to analysts. A
South Korean defense ministry official told reporters Friday that another missile and a nuclear test are "highly
probable."
A spokesman from the South Korean Defense Ministry said that Seoul was "keeping a close eye on the possibility of
North Korea conducting a nuclear test" and that the South Korean military was "fortifying its stance."
North Korea's leadership will likely feel pressure to do something to regain face after such a public humiliation, said
said Rory Medcalf, program director of international security at the Lowy Institute -- a think tank in Sydney, Australia.
"Given the technology failure on such an important occasion on the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-sung, and given the
failure of the symbolism of that, there's perhaps a need to compensate in some way," Medcalf said.
"I wouldn't exaggerate it, but the chance of a nuclear test this year is now higher than it was yesterday," he said.
The U.N. Security Council will meet Friday on the launch, two U.N. diplomats and a U.S. official told CNN. The
meeting had previously been scheduled, U.S. officials said.
Before the launch,, diplomats had warned that Pyongyang would face further isolation if it went ahead.
The U.S. official said that, despite the launch's failure, "it will not change our response."
The last time Pyongyang carried out what it described as a satellite launch, in April 2009, the U.N. Security Council
condemned the action and demanded that it not be repeated.
That rocket traveled 2,300 miles before its third stage fell into the Pacific Ocean. And in 2006, a missile failed after
about 40 seconds in flight.
Governments insisted that Pyongyang would still face consequences for flaunting U.N. resolutions.
The White House press secretary, in a statement, said that North Korea's failed launch "threatens regional security,
violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments."
The statement added, "North Korea is only further isolating itself by engaging in provocative acts."
The Obama administration says the launch prevents the United States from following through on a deal reached in
February to provide much needed food aid to North Korea.
"U.S. delivery of food aid is contingent on our ability to monitor the delivery of that assistance so it goes to North
Korea people who are starving and not to elites or the military," a senior administration official said. "North Korea's
provocations make it impossible to have confidence that those monitoring-agreements can be implemented."
Noriyuki Shikata, a spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, said the international ramifications
could be significant. "This is something that we think is a regrettable development," he said.
"Our government strongly criticizes their action," said South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Sung-hwan.
"They have ignored the starvation of their people and spent money on missiles. It is very unfortunate."
Vitaly Churkin, Russia's U.N. ambassador, said before the launch that Security Council members didn't have a
"clear agreement" about what steps to take if the launch were to go ahead. "But one thing I can tell you: We have
unanimity of understanding that if it were to happen, that would be a clear violation of two Security Council
resolutions."
Following the rocket's failure, China, the closest ally of North Korea, urged the parties involved to "remain calm and
exercise restraint, and not do anything that would harm the peace and stability of the peninsula," according to a
statement posted on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The rocket took off at 7:38 a.m. on Friday. It broke into two parts after about two minutes, according to the South
Korean Defense Ministry.
About six minutes later, the two sections of the rocket separated into smaller pieces, which dropped into the sea, the
ministry said.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials also tracked the missile.
"Initial indications are that the first stage of the missile fell into the sea 165 km west of Seoul, South Korea," they
said in a news release. "The remaining stages were assessed to have failed and no debris fell on land. At no time
were the missile or the resultant debris a threat."
The debris is spread over an area about 20 kilometers (12 miles) long, said Kim Kwan-jin, the South Korean
defense minister.
South Korea, which has criticized the launch as a "grave provocation," said it was searching the waters near where
the rocket fell for debris -- a chance to gain insights into the North's technology.
Joseph Cirincione, president of the global security foundation The Ploughshares Fund, said that the launch's
apparent failure "shows the weakness of the North Korea missile program."
"It's a humiliation," he said. "I wouldn't want to be a North Korean rocket scientist today."
The rocket's short, fruitless flight soothed some concerns among North Korea's neighbors, which had feared parts of
the projectile could threaten their territory. But the failure continues to raise questions about Pyongyang's next
move.
A recent report from South Korean intelligence officials said that North Korea is planning a new nuclear test in the
area where it staged previous atomic blasts.
The South Korean intelligence report noted that the two previous rocket launches that Pyongyang said were
intended to put satellites into orbit were followed a few weeks or months later by nuclear tests.
Rocket launch may provide intelligence windfall
"Often when they've had failures of this kind, they reach into their bag and find other things to do," said Christopher
Hill, a former lead U.S. negotiator at talks over the North Korean nuclear program who now teaches at the University
of Denver. "And so I would be concerned about the potential of an actual nuclear test coming up."
The launch Friday came amid North Korean preparations to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung,
the founder of North Korea who ruled the Communist state for more than four decades. His birthday on April 15,
known as the "Day of the Sun," is a key public holiday.
On Wednesday, North Korea's ruling Workers' Party held a special conference that helped firm up the position of
Kim's grandson, Kim Jong Un, the secretive state's new leader.
Korean television showed a somber Kim standing beneath two towering statues of his grandfather and his late
father, Kim Jong Il, while receiving applause from party functionaries and the military. Kim Jong Il was given the title
of "eternal general secretary" of the Workers' Party, while Kim Jong Un was named the party's first secretary.
CNN's Dan Lothian, Adam Aigner-Treworgy, Larry Shaughnessy, Jill Dougherty, Elise Labott, Stan Grant, Barbara Starr, Paula Hancocks,
Richard Roth, Judy Kwon and Hilary Whiteman contributed to this report.
As North Korean rocket launch nears, the hungry get hungrier
By Jessica Yellin and Lesa Jansen, CNN
updated 4:36 AM EDT, Thu April 12, 2012
Washington (CNN) -- David Austin is one of the few outsiders who has seen firsthand how people live in the North
Korean countryside, and he describes a population "lethargic" from malnutrition.
Just two weeks ago, he visited an orphanage as part of his work as the North Korea program director for the relief
organization Mercy Corps.
He said the last protein children had eaten was in January -- eggs.
"That tells us not only are they not getting a balanced diet but in terms of the rations, they're getting only about 60%
of what a child needs," he said.
Austin describes widespread severe malnourishment and "an entire generation" that is "stunted physically,
developmentally because of chronic malnutrition."
No sign of North Korean rocket launch
According to Austin, in seven visits since 2007, he has been to dozens of orphanages and hospitals and more than
19 private homes.
Factfile: North Korea
North Korean citizens bow before the portraits of the founding father Kim Il-Sung, left, and his son Kim Jong-Il, in Pyongyang, North
Korea on Monday, April 9. April 15 marks the 100-year anniversary of the founder's birth and journalists have been allowed inside the
country.1
Photos: A glimpse inside North Korea
He says he is troubled that the United States plans to call off a massive shipment of food aid as a result of the
anticipated rocket launch by North Korea between now and Monday.
Pyongyang insists that the rocket is necessary to put a weather satellite in orbit, but Washington and Seoul consider
it a ballistic missile test in disguise. Such launches by North Korea breach U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Under a recent food deal with the United States, North Korea agreed to refrain from long range missile launches and
nuclear tests. In exchange, the United States would provide what Austin described as a year's worth of corn-soy
porridge mixed with vegetable oil for children younger than 10 and pregnant women.
The food "wouldn't taste delicious but it saves lives," Austin said, noting that it would have helped 2.4 million people.
At the White House, President Barack Obama's aides suggest their hands are tied after Pyongyang announced the
launch just weeks after the food deal was agreed.
The North Koreans' "blatant disregard for their commitments makes it impossible for the United States to provide the
nutritional assistance that it had hoped to provide for the North Korean people," said Jay Carney, the White House
press secretary.
Some observers have doubts about the White House's approach.
"I have real questions about whether we should have linked humanitarian food assistance to the nuclear missile
program in the first place," said Mike Green, who was senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security
Council during the Bush administration. "It is not the fault of the average North Korean who needs the food, who is
at starvation level, that the regime is developing nuclear missiles."
He said the threatened missile launch was a "provocation that should have been predictable."
But Green acknowledged that if the North Koreans flaunt the deal, sending the food "would be a political liability for
the administration at home, and it would look weak internationally."
Austin of Mercy Corps was careful not to criticize the Obama administration. But he did say the administration had
previously made it clear it would send food to North Korea if there was a verified need for that aid.
"We know there is a need and we know we can met the need. As a humanitarian organization we are saying there is
an opportunity to do that," Austin said. "I don't want to assign blame. But I'm saying there is an opportunity to
engage positively and constructively with a group of people the White House describes as innocent and starving,
and we can do that."