North
Korea is expected to begin fueling a long-range rocket soon, the final step
toward its launch set for as early as this week.
According
to officials on the condition, North Korea has only fueling remaining after
completing the installation of three stages of boosters on a launch pad. And fueling
is expected to begin soon, considering it usually takes two to three days.
What’s
worse is that if North Korea succeeds, it’s going to cripple South Korea’s
reputation as a IT superpower. South Korea has been attempting to launch a
satellite, Naro, ever since the year of 2010, only resulting in huge failures.
Pyongyang
says the Unha-3 rocket will blast off between April 12th and 13th
of what it claims as a satellite in orbit. South Korea, the United States and
other regional powers view the claim as a pretext to disguise a banned missile
test.
In
an attempt to bolster its case, the North has invited foreign journalists and
experts to observe the launch. Reporters from more than 20 media firms have
arrived in the communist nation, according to state media. According to North
Korea’s Central News Agency, foreign journalists and space experts have toured
the launching station in the country's northwestern area of Cholsan.
North
Korea told them Sunday that the satellite will gather necessary information on
the distribution of forestry resources in the country, severity of natural
disasters, crop estimates, weather forecasts and survey of natural resources
during polar orbit.
According
to the news agency, the foreign journalists and space experts ‘admired’ to
learn that the North's space science and technology has entered the practical
stage of satellite.
It
also said the satellite launch is an inspiring deed and an event of historic
significance of the nation.
The
rocket launch is timed to celebrate the April 15 centennial of the birth of
North Korea's late founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim
Jong Un.
There
are several expected key factors in North Korea's decision on when to launch
the rocket; of those is weather. At the moment, where international sanctions
and suspension is proven to be futile, what I pray for is the weather to be
terrible, so that the satellite will be delayed or even suspended.
Just
another quick thought…
An
ordinary US citizen might think that NK’s ability to launch long range missiles
is not of importance to its security, but let me prove you wrong.
If
NK has the ability fire long-range missiles, there is no guarantee that NK will
one day gain the technology to fire it in US territory (i.e. California). Moreover,
even if NK cannot reach US, they still have the technology to attack South Korea.
Many
of you probably heard that China is the new emerging superpower, and will one
day become stronger than US, creating Pax Sinica. South Korea is one of the
main strategic locations to prevent this from happening. Therefore, maintaining
equilibrium.
If
US loses South Korea, they will lose influence in East Asia. If there ever is a
war between US and China, US will need to relocate in Japan and South East Asian
countries, which is quite far from the East Asian countries, making the war
more difficult.
Whether
you like it or not, US cannot afford to lose South Korea.
Another
reason for this is the economic relationship between South Korea and the US.
Those
of you who follow my blog, probably read the news article about KORUS FTA.
Although
US don’t only trade with SK, the two trade quite a significant amount. If Korea
goes to war, I can guarantee that the US market will be impacted.
What
I hear is that although US is recovering from all the recessions of the past
few years, it cannot afford another one.
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