North Korea's Third Probable Nuclear Test

North Korea is prepping itself to embrace the third trial of its nuclear capability. Or that is what the United States intelligence unit, if not the entire world, is predicting. With the recent Unha-3 rocket launch by the world’s most secretive nation two weeks back and the recent improvements at its nuclear facility, North Korea has “successfully” propelled itself to international limelight. This communist country and its leaders were already well-known for their publicity stints that sometimes, do not work out well.

            The recent rocket launch by the North Korean government is seen as a landmark achievement under the reign of the new leader, Kim Jong-Un. This boyish de facto leader took over the government’s supremacy early this year, following the death of his much-favoured father, Kim Jong-Il. Kim Jong-Un portrayed significant hope to many nations in transforming North Korea’s ideology and approach pertaining to international affairs in his early days holding the public office. Now, he seems to be no different compared to his father and grandfather.

            Currently, many nations, most accurately, the countries that are considered as arch-nemesis of North Korea, are in jittery. The list includes the Asian Tiger, South Korea and the biggest economic powerhouse, United States of America. For an ordinary lay-man, one might think, what is the wrong with North Korea launching its own rocket? After all, at the current pace, it has become common for countries to launch their own rockets carrying satellites and space shuttles for defence and space exploration purposes.

            America has been sending countless rockets to outer-space through National Space and Administration Agency (NASA). The same goes to the other nations as well. Japan has its very own JAXA. Russia, too has its own space agency, Roscosmos. So, with due respect to the rights of each nation to develop its rocket and space technology, why did the United Nations together with other countries imposed economic sanctions on Korean DPR to put a rigid full stop to its rocket launch?

            The answer, my friends, is actually easy but quite complex to comprehend. There is a consensus attained in the UN General Assembly that any nuclear-armed nation should not launch any rockets as it poses fatal danger to the global well-being. Why? This is simply because the technology required to launch a rocket is equivalent to the degree of technology needed in launching intercontinental ballistic missile. So, in other words to say, United Nations and its member states are troubled in North Korea’s rocket launch as the country may launch nuclear missile towards its rival.

            Although Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s bigwigs have reiterated countless times that the launch is only targeted for satellite placement meant as a boost for the country’s defence, many are still sceptic. Experts in America’s space agency have mentioned albeit being doubtful, that with North Korea’s existing technology, the satellite may only capture grainy imageries of the country. Plus, it may be useless to get scan images from the satellite at night, as huge portion of North Korea will be in dark due to limited supply of electricity. So, their claim is, it is unlikely for the rocket to carry a satellite as mentioned by the North Korean authority.

            Two major questions linger around? Doesn’t United States is considered as a nuclear-armed nation? Doesn’t Uncle Sam’s country has the precise and sufficient capability to build nuclear weaponry? The answers are YES! But, international law and order permits USA and four other countries namely Britain, France, Russia and China to own and generate nuclear weaponry under the name of Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, signed in 1968. So, this provides the authority for ONLY these five countries to be nuclear-armed and any other nations are barred from developing nuclear weapons. The treaty is still in use to date, albeit the fact that it is discriminatory in nature.

            In the past, during the reign of the second leader Kim Jong-Il, the world had witnessed two rocket launches of Korea DPR. The rockets are classified as Unha-1 and Unha-2 respectively. Much to the international horror, shortly after the launches, North Korea conducted its nuclear test at its facility in 2006 and later in 2009. This was met with furious global backfire and economic sanctions. All these international opposition led by United Nations and America had their devastating impact on North Korea’s fragile economy and social conditions. Yet, this has not been a barrier for Kim Jong-Un in pursuing the nation’s agenda.

            Now, that a third rocket launch is successful, will there be another round of nuclear test for North Korea? Just wait and see.