Recently, North Korea has tested a long range missile (potentially capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii), several short range (capable of reaching Japan), and an underground nuclear explosion.

This comes amid extremely high tensions between the international community and North Korea. North Korea has been extremely aggressive with it’s words and, not so long ago, a US army general said the US was ready for a conventional war with North Korea.

The launch was closely watched and condemned internationally

The US Military has said that North Korea’s satellite rocket that was launched earlier delivered NO payload into orbit and that stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan and the rest landed in the pacific.

This would indicate that the rocket was either a failure or JUST a test for the Taepodong-2 missile as speculated by Japan, South Korea, and the US originally.

However, North Korea claims that the launch was a success and that the satellite has successfully transmitted data.

The more reliable data would come from the international community – North Korea is a heavy censor and has alot at stake in the case of failure. If multiple countries confirm what the US has stated, then that was most likely the case.

Failure or missile test disguise?

Japan has requested an emergency Security Council session and Barack Obama has condemned North Korea for breaking the rules by testing a rocket that could be used as a long range missile.

It’s already known that Japan, the US, and South Korea will want more sanctions placed on North Korea, but Russia and especially China will either reject or minimalise them if they are too harsh.

Satellite images reveal the North Korean Launch Pad in Musudan-ri

North Korea has begun fuelling the rocket which is impending launch to put a communications satellite into space within the next few days, despite international calls for it to halt the launch. Final preparations are being made on the launch site, claims a senior US official.

The rocket will be ready for take off about 3 days after fuelling begins, say experts.

After the last Taepodong test failed, the UN drafted a resolution banning North Korea from ballistic activity, and Japan and the US insist that even Satellite launches are covered in the ban – but what does that matter in the eyes of North Korea..

Pyongyang says it will launch during daylight hours between this Saturday and next Wednesday.

Satellite images of the launch site seem to suggest that the rocket has been fitted with a satellite, coinciding with claims from North Korea that this is a satellite launch and not a missile test, as the US, Japan, and South Korea claim.

The US and Japan are embraced for the imminent launch, which they believe is a cover for a test of the previously unsuccessful North Korean Taepodong-2 missile.

The US has stated that it will not intervene unless it deems it a threat to US territory (such as Hawaii) and Japan has it’s anti-air muscle out for defense purposes. Japan has followed a strict defense-only doctrine since the fall of it’s imperial ideology and shooting it down as an agression would be against the Japanese constitution. The Japanese military will only shoot debris falling towards Japanese territory which is not an unlikely situation as the previous test of the missile failed after a few seconds and the missiles path will actually pass over Japan.

It seems several countries are saying that this is a cover for a missile TEST and not a satellite launch, but what’d be the point of that unless it is using the attention seeking tactic. Can it not test these missiles over it’s own territory and not over other countries territories and possibly their civilian populations?

However, the concept of North Korea launching a harmless satellite is weak seeing as a large portion of its population is suffering from food shortages and the political ideology states that the military comes first. One would assume it’d be a military satellite, but who knows – we can keep guess – this is one of the wonders of the most secretive state in the world.

The likely outcome of this would probably be the usual all-round condemnation of the launch and the international communities grudge over this incident will probably be shrugged off in a short time as they have learned from past experience.