{"id":14582,"date":"2012-12-17T00:12:25","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T00:12:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T12:14:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:14:47","slug":"experts-rocket-launch-bolsters-north-korean-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14582","title":{"rendered":"Experts: Rocket launch bolsters North Korean leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><object width=\"416\" height=\"374\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" id=\"ep_553\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/cnn\/.element\/apps\/cvp\/3.0\/swf\/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&#038;contentId=world\/2012\/12\/17\/hancocks-a-year-of-kim-jung-un.cnn\" \/><param name=\"bgcolor\" value=\"#000000\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/i.cdn.turner.com\/cnn\/.element\/apps\/cvp\/3.0\/swf\/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&#038;contentId=world\/2012\/12\/17\/hancocks-a-year-of-kim-jung-un.cnn\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" width=\"416\" wmode=\"transparent\" height=\"374\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><B>The thing about North Korea is that once in a while, it does something that sends the international community into a flurry of talk about the hermit nation, even though little is known about what&#8217;s really going on.<\/B><\/p>\n<p><B>This week, Pyongyang fired a long-range Unha-3 rocket and sent a satellite into orbit. Nervous world leaders quivered as the rogue country defied a United Nations ban on developing nuclear- and missile-related technology.<\/B><\/p>\n<p>Was the world a more dangerous place after Wednesday&#8217;s event? What would it mean for North Korea&#8217;s young leader as he is about to mark the first anniversary of the death of his father, Kim Jong Il?<\/p>\n<p>When the son ascended to power, concerns surfaced over an inexperienced, mysterious heir taking charge of North Korea&#8217;s nuclear weapons program, its hardcore and cultish communist society and a population of the hungry.<br \/>\n<!--break--><br \/>\nHis eldest half brother said <b>in his book that he was concerned Kim Jong Un would fail to satisfy North Koreans.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the new &#8220;Dear Leader&#8221; can claim not just a public relations victory but also a tangible accomplishment as he prepared for Monday&#8217;s anniversary of Kim Jong Il&#8217;s death.<\/B><\/p>\n<p>Amid the dearth of information, one thing was clear: <B>Kim Jong Un can now stand proud before his people on that big day.<\/B><\/p>\n<p><B>&#8220;The question is what does Kim Jong Un intend?<\/B> said Leon Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York.<\/p>\n<p><B>&#8220;It&#8217;s been an interesting first year but as with most things in North Korea, we simply don&#8217;t know,&#8221;<\/B> he said.<\/p>\n<p><b>Few nuclear experts saw the launch as a tremendous technological advancement, but the perceptions were great and gave Kim a big boost in clout.<\/B> He can say he fulfilled a promise that has kept his family dynasty in power for decades; that the nation&#8217;s persistence to move on &#8212; despite international isolation and internal hardship &#8212; has paid off.<\/p>\n<p><B>In that sense, the satellite launch was proof of progress and power<\/B>, said Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who traveled to North Korea in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Read the rest of the article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/12\/16\/world\/asia\/north-korea-leader\/index.html?hpt=wo_t3\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><I>Source CNN.com<\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The thing about North Korea is that once in a while, it does something that sends the international community into<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3259,"featured_media":70655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1012],"tags":[2120],"class_list":["post-14582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-travel","tag-travel"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"colormag-highlighted-post":false,"colormag-featured-post-medium":false,"colormag-featured-post-small":false,"colormag-featured-image":false,"colormag-default-news":false,"colormag-featured-image-large":false,"colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":false,"colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":false,"colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":false,"colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":false},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"sherlenewdhgtpiohowe","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a6e1bc5615a018ed8299c7b40111e6d93fca210b51c9c595510be5ace02cc2?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"The thing about North Korea is that once in a while, it does something that sends the international community into","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["News","Travel"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":139,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":false,"medium":false,"thumbnail":false},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"sherlenewdhgtpiohowe","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=3259"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a6e1bc5615a018ed8299c7b40111e6d93fca210b51c9c595510be5ace02cc2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"<a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link category-link-1\">News<\/a> <a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link category-link-1012\">Travel<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}