North Korea fires rocket over Japan
By Christian Oliver in Seoul, Jonathan Soble in Tokyo, Harvey Morris at the United Nations and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 5 2009 03:50 | Last updated: April 5 2009 14:42
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/68a5baae-218c-11de-8c4b-00144feabdc0.html
North Korea fired a rocket over Japan into the Pacific ocean on Sunday, ignoring warnings from the US and neighbouring countries and threatening a bitter international dispute over whether Pyongyang is expanding its nuclear weapons capability.
Japanese authorities said the long-range rocket, which North Korea insisted was carrying a satellite into orbit, passed over northern Japan a few minutes after its launch at 11.30 local time.
Police and medical units had been put on alert in case the rocket failed and sent debris toward Japanese territory, but the government said it appeared to have passed over intact.
US President Barack Obama said North Korea had violated UN resolutions with what analysts believe was in effect a test of a ballistic missile designed to carry a warhead potentially as far as Alaska.
”With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations,” Mr Obama, who is on a European tour, said in a statement.
The White House said Mr Obama was set to say that he remains committed to six-nation talks to ”denuclearise” North Korea.
The Pentagon said the first stage of the multi-stage rocket fell into the Sea of Japan and the other two stages, including the payload, fell into the Pacific.
Although Pyongyang heralded the launch as a success, the Pentagon said North Korea had failed to put anything in orbit.
Japan had deployed anti-missile destroyers and coastal batteries in the lead-up to the launch and had suggested it might try to shoot the rocket down, but Tokyo said it held off after tracking the rocket’s initial trajectory and determining that no part of it would hit Japan.
Taro Aso, Japanese prime minister, called the launch ”provocative” and ”extremely regrettable” and said Japan would pursue a resolution against North Korea in the UN Security Council.
South Korea’s presidential office slammed the launch as “reckless” and said it posed a “serious threat to peace on the Korean peninsula”.
China, meanwhile, called for calm in the wake of the rocket launch.
”We hope relevant parties will remain calm and restrained, properly handle this issue, and work together to safeguard peace and stability in the region,” a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said. ”China will continue to play a constructive role for this purpose.”
North Korea said it had successfully put a satellite into orbit on a three-stage rocket that was now circling the Earth transmitting revolutionary songs.
”Our scientists and engineers have succeeded in sending satellite ’Kwangmyongsong-2’ into orbit by way of carrier rocket ’Unha-2’,” the North Korean news agency KCNA said in a Korean-language report.
North Korea has insisted that putting a satellite into orbit is the communist state’s legitimate right under the UN Outer Space Treaty.
But the US, Japan and South Korea have argued any launch of a long-range rocket would simply be a smokescreen for testing long-range missile technology, and would be in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution.
North Korea’s Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile, a version of which is believed to have been used in Sunday’s launch, could theoretically hit Alaska.
Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst on Korea at International Crisis Group, said the launch would likely complicate the ongoing multilateral effort to address North Korea’s nuclear programme. “It’s going to come down to a political decision. It’s clear already that the Chinese and Russians won’t support sanctions.”
The United Nations Security Council was to meet on Sunday at the urgent request of Japan, whose envoy called for an emergency session within an hour of the first reports of the North Korean launch.
Japan, the US and others on the 15-member council were expected to press for a resolution tightening enforcement of existing sanctions on Pyongyang. The current measures were imposed under Security Council resolution 1718, passed in October 2006, five days after a North Korean nuclear test.
Those pressing for tighter sanctions will argue that North Korea is in violation of the resolution, which demands a suspension of all activities related to its ballistic missile programme and a moratorium on missile launching.
The imposition of new sanctions could face opposition or even a veto in the council by China and Russia. The council also has the option of issuing a unanimous statement if there is insufficient support for a new binding resolution.
Tightening existing sanctions would involve UN member states taking more active measures to prevent the shipment of weapons and nuclear and missile technology to North Korea. The 2006 resolution also included a travel ban on named individuals and barred the sale of luxury goods to North Korea, a measure aimed at the country’s leadership.
Mexico, as current president of the security council, set the meeting for 3pm (1900 GMT).
North Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006 but most military experts believe it has still not mastered the technology to fit a warhead on a missile.
Imposing further sanctions against North Korea raises serious humanitarian concerns. The nation cannot meet its food needs and as many as 1m North Koreans died of starvation in the 1990s.
Although the dispute is likely to loom large on the international stage, political analysts have also said the launch is an important domestic propaganda tool for Kim Jong-il. Intelligence agencies think he is recovering from a stroke and minor heart surgery, and is looking for ways to shore up his authority against internal challengers.
A successful launch is also crucial to North Korea for raising much needed hard currency because Iran and Syria are traditional markets for its ballistic missiles. The last test of a Taepodong-2 weapon in 2006 was a failure and the fuselage disintegrated seconds after take-off.
Obama Calls on Security Council to Punish North
By HELENE COOPER and DAN BILEFSKY
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 5, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/us/politics/06prexy.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
PRAGUE — President Obama said that North Korea violated international rules when it tested a rocket that could be used for long range missiles, and called on the Security Council to take action.
“This provocation underscores the need for action—not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons,” Mr. Obama said. “Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something.”
Mr. Obama’s comments on North Korea were delivered at the end of a historic speech before more than 20,000 people here that had been planned far in advance to lay out Mr. Obama’s plans to stop the spread of nuclear arms.
Mr. Obama also said that he still plans to continue with plans to pursue missile defense, but tied the need for such a system to any Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons. Russia opposes locating a defense shield in Poland and radar system in the Czech Republic, as current plans call for, and Mr. Obama said in a letter to President Dmitri Medvedev two months ago that if Russia is able to successfully help the United States stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, there will be no need for a missile defense shield in place in Eastern Europe.
The issue has particular resonance here in Prague, since the collapsed government of Prime Minister Marek Topolanek, which suffered a parliamentary vote of no confidence ahead of the visit, went to bat against popular opinion to support installing the radar system here, only to have the Obama administration begin to walk back from the plan.
Mr. Topolanek last week got back at Mr. Obama when he called Mr. Obama’s economic stimulus proposals “a way to hell.”
Mr. Obama came to Prague anyway, although his speech stuck largely to arms control and proliferation, without veering too far into economics.
“Let me be clear: Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the United States, but to Iran’s neighbors and our allies,” Mr. Obama said. “The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles. As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven.”
That North Korea fired a rocket over Japan and into the Pacific just hours before Mr. Obama’s speech lent his message an added urgency, Mr. Obama said, although White House officials disputed any suggestion that the secretive government in the North timed its rocket launch to coincide with Mr. Obama’s speech.
“I hate to speculate about North Korean motivations,” said Gary Samore, the White House coordinator for nonproliferation, adding that the North Koreans had announced their launch window two weeks ago, and that weather conditions favored today. “I’m not sure this is a deliberate calculated action on the part of the North Koreans.”
In any case, the North Korean action illustrated again that the international community has mostly had its hands tied when it comes to stopping North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. The Security Council may slap Pyongyang on the wrist, as it has before, but China, a permanent member, has often stood in the way of strong international action.
Nonetheless, Mr. Obama said he will push for strong Security Council action. “Now is the time for a strong international response, and North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons.”
But it remained unclear exactly what the West will be able to do by way of the talked about punishment. President Bush pressed for similar sanctions after the North’s nuclear test in October 2006, but those sanctions had little long-term effect.
Although some Czech officials had even quietly discouraged Mr. Obama’s speech, worried that it would intensify the Czech public’s fears of being caught between the United States and Russia. But the crowd of Czechs here mostly seemed transfixed.
Irena Kalhousova, 30, a lecturer in international relations, who said she woke up at 4 a.m. to make sure she could get a glimpse of Mr. Obama, said she had been struck by the contrast between the detached haughtiness of Czech President Vaclav Klaus, 67 — who was booed when his face appeared on a screen —and the youthful vigor of Mr. Obama, whom she said radiated “positive energy”.
Mr. Klaus, an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis. The crowd cheered — and Mr. Klaus appeared to grimace — when Mr. Obama said the United States was ready to lead in the global fight against climate change. The evening before, Mr. Klaus appeared to have been snubbed when Mr. Obama opted to dine privately with the First Lady rather than attend a state dinner with the Czech President.
“Our President Klaus looks bored, old and angry while Mr. Obama is young, energetic and inspiring,” she said. “It would have been nice to have a stable government in the Czech Republic,” she said, alluding to the recent collapse of the Czech government. “But I feel we have redeemed ourselves in front of the world today.”
She said that before the speech, she had feared Mr. Obama was too soft on Russia and too naïve when dealing with rogue states. But she said Mr. Obama’s indication that he was still open to installing a missile defense radar system in the Czech Republic had helped reassure her, along with his strong warnings to North Korea and Iran that nuclear armament would not be tolerated.
Jakub Fidler, 21, student of political science, said he had been so excited about Mr. Obama’s appearance, he had left his town of Bohumin, in the eastern part of the country, before midnight, to catch the last train to Prague, where he arrived at 4 a.m. “Obama to me is a symbol of change, he is a break from the norm and not part of the old establishment,” he said. Our politicians could learn a thing or two from Obama, especially when it comes to being polite and how to behave on the international scene.”
Not all were effusive about Mr. Obama’s appearance. Miloslava Krulova, 76, who worked in a bank before she retired, said she was worried that Mr. Obama’s disarmament drive could prove detrimental to global peace.
“I came here today because I admire Obama’s intelligence. He is also a good husband and father. But I am skeptical of his words because trying to get the world to disarm might have the opposite effect.” Noting the throngs of mesmerized youth, she added: “I was shocked that I seemed to be the only elderly lady here. Maybe people of my generation are afraid, that they might not understand Obama and his policies.”
Jan Krcmar contributed reporting.
Obama Calls for World Without Nuclear Weapons
By Michael D. Shear and Craig Whitlock
Copyright by The Washington Post
Sunday, April 5, 2009; 12:29 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/05/AR2009040500021.html?hpid=topnews
PRAGUE, April 5 -- In a speech grimly punctuated by current events, President Obama Sunday called for a world without nuclear weapons shortly after North Korea defied global warnings to fire a long-range rocket.
Speaking in front of the Prague Castle just hours after the North Korean launch, Obama vowed to immediately seek U.S. ratification of a ban on nuclear testing, convene a summit in Washington to stop the spread of nuclear material within four years and create a nuclear fuel bank to allow peaceful development of nuclear power.
"I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said to a crowd of about 20,000 packed into the historic square in the Czech Republic's capital city. "This goal will not be reached quickly -- perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change."
The president denounced North Korea's launch of a three-stage Taepodong-2 missile, which flew over Japan before apparently falling into the Pacific Ocean, as a provocative act in defiance of the United Nations.
North Korea has called the launch part of a "peaceful" research project, but the United States, Japan and other allies see it as a threat. The missile has the range to reach Hawaii and Alaska.
Obama said Sunday North Korea risks further isolation by pursuing nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them.
"Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something," he said to loud applause. "The world must stand together to stop the spread of these weapons."
White House officials said it was unclear whether the rocket launch was intended to coincide with the president's speech. But intentional or not, it served as a reminder of the potential dangers of nuclear weapons and the difficulty in restraining nations from developing them.
Obama spoke against a backdrop of the city where Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces crushed a movement of political liberalization in August, 1968. His address put new focus on disarmament and nonproliferation issues, which he had also raised in his foreign policy speeches during the presidential campaign.
The scene of his address, under a hazy sky in one of Eastern Europe's oldest and most beautiful cities, recalled Obama's speech in Germany in the midst of the presidential campaign last year.
Thousands of people waved U.S. and Czech flags and chanted "Obama" as they waited for his arrival, packing Hradcany Square, a hilltop plaza outside Prague Castle, to catch a glimpse of the American president. Unlike Obama's other appearances in Europe, his Prague speech was open to the general public; people started lining up before dawn to get a space on the square.
"It was a historical moment, to have him speak here," said Michaela Dombrovska, 32, a civil-servant from Prague. "He's given us hope that American will lead us to more world peace. He's clearly thought up new and different ideas about how to get rid of nuclear weapons in an effective way."
The president called Prague a "golden city which is both ancient and youthful" and honored the 1968 Prague Spring and the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which peacefully ended the country's domination by the Soviets, by saying that "we are here today because enough people ignored the voice who said the world could not change."
Last week, Obama announced plans to negotiate a new arms reduction treaty with Russia by the end of this year, with the goal of reducing the number of nuclear weapons held by both countries. But the proposals he outlined today go beyond that announcement. Obama pledged a broad effort by his government to convince allies and adversaries to abandon nuclear weapons as a means of security and aggression.
For those worried about a unilateral American disarmament, Obama promised that the country would keep enough nuclear weapons to defend itself and its allies as long as the weapons existed in other nations.
But he made clear that efforts to convince nations such as North Korea and Iran to abandon their nuclear ambitions will not succeed unless the United States and its allies make good on their promises to eventually abandon their own stockpiles of the weapons.
"As a nuclear power -- as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon -- the United States has a moral responsibility to act," he said. "We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it."
He also reiterated his pledge to install a missile defense system in Eastern Europe as long as Iran poses a possible nuclear threat to the region.
"If the Iranian threat is eliminated, we will have a stronger basis for security, and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe at this time will be removed," Obama said.
A crucial component of the missile shield -- a radar tracking system -- would be based outside Prague under terms of a treaty signed by the Czech government and the Bush administration last July. But polls show that about 70 percent of Czechs are against the shield, and opponents so far have blocked the Czech parliament from ratifying the agreement.
Dozens of protesters, clad in white hazardous-material protection suits, stood silently outside the Prague Castle grounds to demonstrate against the missile shield.
Senior U.S. officials, discussing Obama's speech, said the administration is "trying to seize the moral high ground" in discussions with countries like North Korea.
"For us to mobilize international pressure against countries like Iran and North Korea, we have to demonstrate that we are committed" to disarmament, said Gary Samore, White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security, and Arms Control.
Obama has endorsed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty before, but today pledged to "immediately and aggressively" seek ratification of the treaty in the U.S. Senate. Nearly 148 countries have ratified the treaty, but it still awaits approval by the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and Iran.
Once the United States ratifies the treaty, officials said they expect others could follow quickly.
After the speech, several hundred people marched through central Prague denouncing the shield project. They carried balloons and placards reading, "Yes We Can -- Say No To Missile Shield" and "We Want Democracy -- 70 Percent of Czechs Opposed to U.S. Military Base." An large contingent of riot police kept watch over the march, but no disturbances were reported.
Sabri Djerbi, a 24-year-old university student from Prague, said he was disappointed but not surprised that Obama endorsed the missile shield, after questioning the merits of the project during his presidential campaign.
"The people who tell him what to do are the same people who told George Bush what to do," Djerbi said. "They are just puppets. When Obama won, the American people cried and cried, saying, 'This is the best day of my life.' But no, I knew he wouldn't be any different, really."
Other demonstrators, however, said they were still heartened by part of Obama's speech. While they said they disagreed with his stance on the missile shield, they praised his call for nuclear disarmament and closer relations with Russia and Iran.
"We were really just hoping for a change in rhetoric, and we heard that," said Tanya Sediva, 50, a women's rights activist from Prague. "With Bush, it was only talk about armaments and war. With Obama, it's a breath of fresh air."
Many Czechs who listened to the speech agreed with that sentiment.
Marek Hyl, 24, a business student from Slovakia, said he was pleasantly surprised by Obama's stated willingness to improve relations with Russia and impose deep cuts on both countries' nuclear arsenals. "It's not what you would expect from an American president," Hyl said. "Especially nowadays, given what is going on with Iran and North Korea."
Tomas Poskocil, 28, a genetics researcher from the town of Pisek, said he arrived at Prague Castle at 3 a.m. to get a good perch in the crowd so he could take measure of Obama in person. "We still don't really know who he is," Poskocil said. "Everybody has so many expectations for him, but we need to hear him out and really listen to what he has to say."
North Korea Seeks Political Gain From Test
By CHOE SANG-HUN, HELENE COOPER and DAVID E. SANGER
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 6, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/asia/07korea.html?ref=global-home
SEOUL, South Korea — Despite the failure of North Korea’s attempt to launch a satellite, Pyongyang’s adversaries voiced alarm on Monday over the extended range of the North’s latest rocket, while the United Nations tumbled into a disarray over how to respond to what President Obama called a “provocative act.”
Washington and Seoul said the North Korean rocket launched on Sunday failed to thrust a satellite into orbit. But on Monday, seeking to garner political gain from the test, the North Korean media praised Kim Jong-il’s leadership, insisting that a communications satellite was circling the Earth, broadcasting patriotic songs.
Officials and analysts in Seoul said the North’s rocket, identified by American officials as a Taepodong-2, flew at least 2,000 miles, doubling the range of an earlier rocket it tested in 1998 and boosting its potential to fire a long-range missile.
The impoverished country may be years away from building a truly intercontinental ballistic missile and tipping it with a nuclear warhead. But to governments grown increasingly concerned by the North’s military might, the launch was a sign that it was doggedly moving in that direction.
“North Korea’s reckless act of threatening regional and global security cannot have any justification,” said President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea in a radio speech on Monday.
Hours after North Korea’s missile test on Sunday, President Obama called for new United Nations sanctions and laid out a new approach to American nuclear disarmament policy — one intended to strengthen the United States and its allies in halting proliferation.
“In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up,” Mr. Obama told a huge crowd in Prague’s central square. “Black market trade in nuclear secrets and nuclear materials abound. The technology to build a bomb has spread.”
He said the North’s testing of “a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles” illustrated “the need for action, not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons.”
“Rules must be binding,” he said. “Violations must be punished. Words must mean something.”
At the Security Council on Sunday, the United States and its main allies — Japan, France and Britain —pushed for a resolution denouncing the test as a violation of the 2006 sanctions, which demanded that North Korea suspend any activity related to the launching of ballistic missiles.
Diplomats said a main issue would be determining if the failed launch violated any resolutions.
“We think that what was launched is not the issue; the fact that there was a launch using ballistic missile technology is itself a clear violation,” said Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador.
China left its position ambiguous, although diplomats said that at the initial meeting it stressed that the North Koreans had a right like any other country to launch satellites. “Our position is that all countries concerned should show restraint and refrain from taking actions that might lead to increased tensions,” Zhang Yesui, the Chinese ambassador, told reporters.
Igor N. Shcherbak, the Russian deputy envoy, said that his country did not think it was a violation of the resolutions banning ballistic missiles, but he added that Russia was still studying the matter.
Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, the council’s president, said the council would reconvene on Monday.
In Tokyo, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said: “We feel that a Security Council resolution is desirable, so we will keep trying for that.”
Although the debris of the North Korean rocket fell hundreds of kilometers short of where the North had said they would land in the Pacific, “the launch carries big political and military significance,” said Jeung Young-tai, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
“No country will be naive enough to believe that it was a peaceful space program,” Mr. Jeung said.
“North Korea is on the threshold of becoming an intercontinental ballistic missile country.”
Peter Hayes, director of the Nautilus Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank, said the main motivation behind the launch was “to demonstrate the strength and vitality of Kim Jong Il’s leadership to the military and the population, and for the scientific sector to declare its fealty to Kim Jong Il’s leadership.”
Kim is expected to be re-affirmed as leader by his rubber-stamp parliament, which convenes on Thursday.
The people in the tightly isolated country have little access to news from the outside world, where the satellite launch was considered a failure.
When North Korea first flight-tested the Taepodong-2, in July 2006, it blew apart 40 seconds after take-off. The rocket is designed to fly at least 6,700 kilometers, or 4,200 miles, according the South Korean Defense Ministry.
This time, the official KCNA news agency asserted, “storms of hurrays shook the room” as the satellite entered orbit.
Choe Sang-hun reported from Seoul, South Korea,, Helene Cooper from Prague and David E. Sanger from London. Neil MacFarquhar contributed from the United Nations.
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