The government of Malta has condemned North Korea’s (failed) rocket-launch attempt of yesterday. It has released a statement which says: “This dangerous and destabilising action is in breach of a UN Security Council resolution. Regardless of its stated purpose, this attempted launch is a clear violation of the DPRK’s international obligations as set out in particular under UN Security Council Resolution 1718 and 1874. This act ignores not only international will but also the basic needs of the North Korean people.”
The rocket disintegrated immediately after lift-off. This has meant intensely public humiliation for Pyongyang and a dictatorship which is obsessive about maintaining a façade of perfection and making shows of strength. It was supposed to be the highlight of celebrations to mark Kim Jong Un’s ascension to the hereditary dictatorship ‘throne’, and coincided with the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s (his grandfather’s) birth.
South Korea has seized the opportunity to make its sworn enemy’s humiliation even greater, by sending out warships to collect rocket debris for investigation and analysis.
The rocket-launch has been universally condemned, but the UN Security Council, which joined in the chorus, has not imposed fresh penalties on North Korea.
The United States of America has responded by suspending its food aid programme, which means – of course – that the wrong North Koreans are going to suffer (and I hate to think of what is happening to the scientists who were responsible for the rocket). Yet even as he ordered the suspension of food aid, Barack Obama said that this failed launch shows how North Korea is wasting money on rockets that “don’t work” while its people starve. North Korea maintains one of the world’s largest standing armies, but North Koreans survive mainly on food provided by friendly China.
I didn’t quite follow the reasoning there. Would it have been all right to waste money on rockets while people starve, if those rockets worked, or is it doubly wasteful to do so because they don’t work? I imagine Obama just wanted to put the emphasis on North Korea’s ineptitude as well as its profligacy.
He told Telemundo, the Spanish-language television network, that the North Koreans have “been trying to launch missiles like this for over a decade now, and they don’t seem to be real good at it”. Perhaps that wasn’t the smartest thing to say. The North Korean dictatorship is bound to read it as a challenge and work even harder to prove the United States wrong.
Given North Korea’s cavalier disregard for its international obligations and for the UN Security Council, concern is now even greater that it readying itself for something worse, like the country’s third nuclear test. North Korea is prohibited (by the UN Security Council) from developing nuclear and missile programmes. Its first nuclear test, in 2006, was met with sanctions, which were increased after its second test three years ago.
Japan and the United States believe that the rocket was actually a disguised missile test, but Pyongyang claims it was simply used to put a satellite into orbit.
Meanwhile, back home on the ranch, George Abela’s office has released a statement denying that he said to the North Korean ambassador the words reported by the official North Korean news agency and picked up by the Maltese press. Those words were that he “was pleased with the great achievements made by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in building a thriving nation under the wise guidance of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un”.
The statement said that the President merely asked how the North Korean economy fared, which is “a customary question during such meetings”. The North Korean ambassador replied, and President Abela “made no further observations to the reply... neither did President Abela mention the demise of former DPRK general secretary Kim Jon Il”.
There’s a simple solution, of course: invite the Maltese press to these meetings. Or release your own statement first.
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