North Korea announced Friday it plans to launch an Earth-observation satellite next month. North Korea claims it has two functioning satellites in orbit already, but other nations dispute that.
South Korea, Japan, and the United States are all concerned about what North Korea might really have in mind. Developing rocket technology for a space program, they worry, can cover development of a missile program, and since the North already has nuclear technology, having a delivery system for nuclear bombs would create an extremely dangerous situation-- not unlike that posed by a nuclear Iran. In both cases, we have regimes that hold themselves outside the international mainstream, one based in religious fanaticism, and the other in old-style, hard-nosed, police state communism, led at present by an inexperienced leader who may or may not understand the world outside his borders.
Both Iran and North Korea insist on pursuing space programs despite the alarms they know such efforts set off in other capitals. That is, perhaps, a worrying sign.
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