To the space and beyond

When last April North Korea launched a rocket/long-range missile into space, several voices started to shout out for sanctions against Kim’s regime. In the end, the test was, according to American military sources, a failure; although the North Koreans claim that their satellite is rounding the Earth chanting echoes of admiration for his present leader.

But looking forward the test itself, the point is that North Korea is under sanctions and is not allowed to test that kind of rockets or missiles. As we pointed out here, having a space platform doesn’t automatically qualifies for having a long-range missile system, but it helps. A lot. And that’s why the International community imposed the sanctions against North Korea.

This week, again, a rocket rocketed into the space from the Korean peninsula. Only that this time was from the South. After a few delays due to technical malfunctions and bad weather, the first South Korean satellite launched from its own soil was… Another failure. Exactly for the same reasons as the north neighbors. Both Koreas’ rockets weren’t able to reach a stable orbit, so the satellites were burned into the atmosphere.

But looking again forward beyond the launching, there is still the issue of the sanctions. If the North is banned for launching rockets into space or long-range missiles from its soil, it should rule the same standards for the South. Indeed, the North warned the international community they will be closely watching for the reaction to this launching.

Of course, the reaction has been nothing. It’s quite difficult, taking into account that the current General Secretary of the United Nations is a South Korean himself. Try again, Kim. But the truth has to be said, and it is that for once, the US hasn’t been so hypocrite as usual.

Sure, they haven’t condemned the South Koreans like they did with the northern neighbors. They couldn’t do it, in the end, the south is their ally. But at least they didn’t contributed either to the effort. When the South Koreans turned to the Americans for help with the rockets, they said “nay”. So the South government called on the Russians’ door (who finally helped them).

In this upside-down world, this rocket-incident and the recent behavior of the northsiders have exchanged the characters of the good and the bad guy between the two Koreas.

While the South claims that any critical commentary from the North about their space program is just "propaganda", the North has been giving sweets to the West for the past two months. First was the release of the two American journalists detained in March, after the visit of Bill Clinton.

Then, last week, Kim’s regime decided to resume conversations with the South, sent a delegation and condolences to the funeral of an ex-president of the South and is thinking about reopening the borders to tourists and familiar reunions.

With guys like these (specially Kim, who likes to be the good cop and the bad cop himself), who says politics are boring?



Photo: Park Ji-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images

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