By min | March 23, 2009, 3:55 PM | Ummm... Other? | Link

Up in Arms

North Korea announced that they were going to launch a communications satellite, and everyone's pretty much afraid that it's really a missile test.

South Korean officials said Thursday that North Korea had notified international authorities that it will launch a communications satellite in early April, a move the United States and other countries fear could be a test of a missile that could reach as far as the West Coast of the United States.

The notification was the latest in a series of signals North Korea has given in recent weeks about such a launch. Washington and Seoul warned that such a "provocative" launch would flout a 2006 UN resolution and could invite more sanctions from the Security Council.

Pyongyang provided the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Maritime Organization and others with "necessary information for the safe navigation of planes and ships," the North's state-run Korea Central News Agency reported Thursday.

KCNA did not say when the launch would take place. But South Korea's Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said North Korea informed the International Maritime Organization on Wednesday that its rocket, carrying an experimental communications satellite, would lift off in the April 4-8 period.

Neighboring governments suspect that the real purpose of the launching will be to test the North's Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile.

They did file the appropriate warnings so that ships and planes wouldn't be in danger. That's rather unusual of them, to be so considerate. Kim Jong-Il's a crackpot, for sure, so their concerns are founded. But, you know, mebbe they just want better tv reception?

It's prolly a missile test.