North Korea is to carry out its second rocket launch of 2012 as its youthful leader Kim Jong-un flexes his muscles a year after his father's death, in a move that will likely heighten diplomatic tensions and draw criticism from Washington.
North Korea is to carry out its second rocket launch of 2012 as its youthful leader Kim Jong-un flexes his muscles a year after his father's death, in a move that will likely heighten diplomatic tensions and draw criticism from Washington.
A soldier stands guard in front of a rocket sitting on a launch pad at the West Sea satellite launch site, scene of April's unsuccessful testPhotograph: Reuters
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New leader’s move, after previous humiliating failure, is likely to heighten diplomatic tensions By David Chance in Seoul
North Korea's state news agency announced the decision to launch another space satellite yesterday, just a day after Kim met a senior delegation from China's Communist Party in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
China, under new leadership, is North Korea's only major political backer and has continually urged peace on the Korean peninsula, where the north and south remain technically at war after an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, ended the 1950-1953 conflict. No comment on the planned launch was immediately available from Beijing's foreign ministry.
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