North Korea has made remarks about Taepodong-2 missile preparations for the first time. Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) has released a statement regarding international society’s reports of the North’s latest moves to prepare for missile launch, calling them the “absurd remarks of hostile powers” and “debasement and provocation.”
The KCNA said, “The U.S. and some other countries talk as if we were preparing for the launch of a long-range missile.”
It emphasized, “Anti-Republic (North Korea) factions talk about this subject that they know nothing of, only with quotations from intelligence sources. It is debasement and provocation of us.”
The KCNA said that, “They will see what will fly into the air,” without any details about the projectile. It added, “It is a cunning maneuver to obstruct our fair and peaceful scientific activities to insist on the missile claim. Space development is our independent right and is necessary for our development.”
In 1998, when North Korea launched the “Taepodong-1,” it insisted it was that of a satellite called “Kwangmyungsung-1.” Therefore, this North Korean commentary seems to be a sort of land readjustment, in order to insist that the Taepodong-2 is also for the purposes of launching a satellite.
If North Korea insists that it is the launch of a satellite after launching the “Taepodong-2,” and claims it as its right for the peaceful utility of space, it could easily avoid adverse criticisms that the North is abusing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 (2006).
Additionally, North Korea can show off its missile technology to the Obama administration and can also encourage its people to band together within the system.
Chosun Shinbo, a publication by Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan) pointed out on the 6th that, after all, “rockets for a satellite and an ICBM have the same body.”
