Yet another violation of UN resolutions

Pyongyang must stop the wasteful provocation and choose dialogue over provocation.

North Korea’s attempt to put the country’s first spy satellite dubbed Malligyong-1 into space via its newly developed Chollima-1 rocket failed after a blast-off from its long-range missile launch base in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan, early Wednesday.

In a rare quick admission — two hours and 30 minutes after the launch — North Korea’s state mouthpiece said that the projectile failed due to an “abnormal startup of the engine” during the second-stage separation, which led to a crash into the Yellow Sea. It is the first time in seven years that the North has attempted to launch a satellite payload into orbit. The last was the Kwangmyongsong-4 on Feb. 7, 2016.

Regardless of the failure, the North’s launch of a surveillance satellite is an outright violation of the UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1718. Since the North’s first nuclear test in October 2006, the UNSC has issued multiple resolutions banning nuclear tests and missile launches based on ballistic missile technology and urged the country to stop all ballistic missile programs. Technology for satellite rocket launches can be used in firing ballistic missiles too.

South Korea, the U.S. and others in the international community have condemned Pyongyang for violating UNSC resolutions. National Security Council (NSC) chief Cho Tae-yong convened a NSC meeting to denounce the “grave provocation threatening the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and international society.” In an NSC statement, the White House also called the launch a “brazen violation” of the international law, which risked destabilizing the security in region and beyond. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres also criticized North Korea for violating Security Council resolutions.

Our Joint Chiefs of Staff retrieved debris from the crashed North Korean rocket in waters 200 kilometers (124 miles) west of Eocheong Island in the Yellow Sea. The military will look into the capacity, technology level, and the country origin of parts to discover who had defied international sanctions and secretly supplied prohibited space technology parts to North Korea.

North Korea has been sophisticating nuclear and long-range missile technology and aims to have surveillance satellites to keep watch on the allies’ military movements and raise the precision of its nuclear missiles. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been eager to advance the satellite program.

He may have rushed to fire the rocket after South Korea successfully launched a satellite payload into orbit with its homegrown technology to join the exclusive group of seven countries with such capacity. North Korea vowed to expedite a second launch, but it could invite greater isolation from the rest of the world. Pyongyang must stop the wasteful provocation and choose dialogue over provocation.