So says Japan according to this report:
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea appeared to launch a rocket on Sunday, the Japanese government said, defying calls from world leaders to scrap a plan that has caused international alarm.
It was not immediately clear if the launch had been successful, or if it was a long-range version of the rocket.
Just yesterday, President Obama said the West would take action if North Korea launched a missile in violation of the 2006 U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718:
On Friday, President Barack Obama increased pressure on North Korea by warning that a launch would be "provocative" and wouldn't go unpunished.
Speaking at a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Strasbourg, France, Mr. Obama said North Korea has become only more belligerent in the face of calls to cancel the missile launch.
"Should North Korea decide to take this action, we will work ... to take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can't threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity," Mr. Obama said.
Source
So, what will the response of the world community be?
U.N. Security Council diplomats have told Reuters on condition of anonymity that no country was considering imposing new sanctions but the starting point could be discussing a resolution for the stricter enforcement of earlier sanctions.
Both Russia and China, the latter the nearest the reclusive North has to a major ally, have made clear they would block new sanctions by the Council, where they have veto power.
I'm not for sanctions--they don't seem to work except to make suffering populations suffer even further.
The timing is interesting, of course, with President Obama on his first major international tour--widely regarded as a resounding success, especially with his declared commitment to rolling back nuclear arms.
Unfortunately, it seems that North Korea has the upperhand, especially with the detention of two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. This is another case of N. Korean brinkmanship that seems all too effective:
Among North Korea watchers, Mr. Kim’s tactic is known as "brinkmanship." It is a term they often use to explain politics behind the North’s rocket launching and its detention and impending indictment of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, both reporters of San Francisco-based Current TV, who were arrested by North Korean soldiers at the border with China on March 17.
The collapse of the Communist bloc in the early 1990s left North Korea with few friends. Since then, North Korea, a dictatorship armed to the teeth but unable to feed its own people without foreign aid, has specialized in provoking the international community for survival.
Whenever it failed to get concessions in negotiations or there were changes of governments abroad, the North raised tensions, wangling an invitation to talks and extracting fresh aid while never giving up its trump card, its nuclear weapons program.
New York Times
This "brinksmanship" has worked in the past and seems likely to work now, according to Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul:
North Korea has little to lose in this game. It’s a repeating pattern: Once again, North Korea’s brinkmanship is working.
The International Crisis Group warns of an overreaction that could push North Korea out of the Six-Party Group, and recommends:
Rather than raising the level of alarm over a launch that is likely to go ahead, the other five members of the Six-Party Talks should agree to a moderate set of measures that maintains their unity in the face of North Korea’s provocation. They could do this by:
- issuing a joint statement condemning the launch as provocative in the current tense climate, reaffirming Security Council Resolutions 1695 and 1718, and demanding that North Korea return to the Six-Party Talks;
- seeking to reinvigorate the Security Council committee monitoring the UN sanctions regime, including by calling on member states to report regularly on measures taken to implement the sanctions regime, particularly the ban on transfers of weapons to North Korea, and by taking action against any violators of that ban;
- offering to include discussion on space cooperation in resumed Six-Party Talks;
- reaffirming support for the 2003 Proliferation Security Initiative; and
- South Korea, the United States and Japan agreeing on an overall package deal that can be presented to the North Koreans in exchange for major steps forward in nuclear and missile disarmament. Such a deal should be presented by a high-level U.S. envoy sent to meet Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. It could then be endorsed in the Six-Party process.
Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group said, ""If the launch does take place, the best outcome for the international community is simply for it to fail."
Unfortunately, as of just a few minutes ago, the U.S. State Department has confirmed the launch was successful:
State Department spokesman Fred Lash confirmed the launch, saying it occurred at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday.
Let the war of words begin. How does the international community peacefully respond to this aggressive display by Pyongyang?