North Korea Threatens Second Rocket Launch
Weeks after North Korea launched a rocket against the wishes and warnings of leaders around the world, the country has threatened to launch a second rocket if a condition is not met.
PressTV reports that a Foreign Ministry spokesman released a statement, which reads: “Unless the UN Security Council offers an apology immediately, we will be forced to take additional self-defense measures to protect the highest interests of our republic.”
North Korea’s threat came after the U.N. Security Council’s rather weak response to the first launch. North Korea still claims the launch was “peaceful,” although the U.S. and other countries believe the country is testing its long-range missile capability.
The rogue nation’s launch and threat of another are wake-up calls that should more than convince the world that North Korea is ready, willing, and able to defy other nations and continue developing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. How much clearer does it have to be? What will our president have to say about North Korea’s second-launch threat?
In other news about North Korea, the National Policy Institute posted a blog entry written by the Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano. He discusses a New York Times article we linked to earlier this week. Carafano writes:
“In the New York Times week in review published on April 25, 2009, William Broad long-time science writer for the paper discusses the debate over the effectiveness of the North Korean missile launch on April 5. The article purports to represent the state of debate on North Korea missile developments. The analysis ignores basic facts known about the test.
…
“In addition, the editorial tone of the article is biased against missile defense favoring the view of those who disparage advances in the North Korean program. ‘The advocates want to scare people, so they hype the threat,’ states Philip Coyle who is identified as a ‘former director of weapons testing at the Pentagon and a senior advisor to the Center of Defense Information. Broad did not note Coyle is also a prominent critic of missile defense programs. Broad also extended Coyle’s remarks writing, ‘Such portrayals take bravado since the failed launching was North Korea’s third unsuccessful bid to loft a satellite in a decade, the splashdown made all the more humiliating by Pyongyang’s weeks of drumrolls and world defiance.’”
Tags: North Korea, U.N. Security Council