NORTH KOREA TYRANTS SPEND ON ROCKETS AS THEIR PEOPLE STARVE

POOR Kim Jong-il. on Wednesday the former leader of North Korea was honoured with the title of General Secre- tary for eternity of the North Korean Workers Party. But yesterday he had to witness the embarrassing failure of the country’s unha-3 rocket, which exploded over the Yellow sea less than two minutes after being launched.
I say he had to witness the failure but that’s not strictly accurate. Kim Jong-il actually died in December. mere death, however, is of no consequence in North Korean politics. He is after all the General secretary for eternity. And Kim Jong-il’s own father Kim il-sung was declared President for eternity when he died in 1994.

So the man who is now leader, Kim Jong-un, the third and youngest son of Kim Jong-il, will no doubt also be looking forward to many years in charge: eternity, to judge from the titles accorded to his father and grandfather.

But before that he must attend to more pressing matters, the most public of which is the reaction of the rest of the world to yesterday’s launch. the decision to go ahead with the test flouted a series of UN security council resolutions banning North Korea from developing long- range missile technology.

The North Koreans insist the rocket was simply part of a programme to develop the capacity to launch satellites.

No one – not even the chinese, their only real international ally – believes them.

THE international Atomic energy Agency has declared North Korea to be a “fully fledged nuclear power”. the North Koreans themselves even boast about their nuclear prowess. they launch tests. they publicise them.

The CIA believes they also have a chemical weapons capacity. The issue is not whether the North Koreans have these weapons: it is what type they have and what they want to do with them.

Clearly a rogue state with nuclear weapons is the last thing the world needs. But before we jump to the conclusion that the rest of the world is about to be held to ransom by a madman – and there is every reason to describe North Korea’s leaders as mad – we need to look at some facts.