We ask how the world should react to Kim Jong-un's long-range rocket launch after barely a year in the top job.
North Korea has successfully launched a long-range rocket which it says was designed to put a weather satellite into orbit.
| "The launch surely has a primary purpose, given the timing, of influencing South Korean presidential elections. There are a majority of South Koreans who do not want any kind of conflict with the North .... The North Korean goal quite clearly is to persuade South Korean voters they're better off with a president who is willing to engage with the North, than one who is not." - Paul Chamberlin, a former US military attache to Seoul |
The move sparked an international outcry, with the US, South Korea and Japan saying it was a test of technology that could, one day, be used to deliver a nuclear warhead.
North Korea followed what it said was a similar successful launch in 2009 with a nuclear test that prompted the UN Security Council to stiffen sanctions that it originally imposed in 2006 after the country's first nuclear test.
North Korea is banned from developing nuclear and missile-related technology under UN resolutions.
The man at North Korea's helm, Kim Jong-un, has been in office barely a year but he has been making his mark.
Kim was pushed into the top job – a position he had started to be groomed for – after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
North Korea followed what it said was a similar successful launch in 2009 with a nuclear test that prompted the UN Security Council to stiffen sanctions that it originally imposed in 2006 after the country's first nuclear test.
North Korea is banned from developing nuclear and missile-related technology under UN resolutions.
The man at North Korea's helm, Kim Jong-un, has been in office barely a year but he has been making his mark.
Kim was pushed into the top job – a position he had started to be groomed for – after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
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