Launch exposed limits of NKorea military: report
The communist state had been unable to track the long-range rocket beyond a certain distance. -AFP
Tue, Apr 07, 2009
AFP
SEOUL - North Korea's rocket launch has exposed the limitations of its military with radar unable to track the object far enough, one ship breaking down and a warplane crashing, a report here said Tuesday.
South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, quoting intelligence sources, said the communist state had been unable to track the long-range rocket beyond a certain distance.
"North Korea managed to launch a rocket, but Pyongyang's authorities were somewhat disorganised," one source told JoongAng.
It said a ship which set sail for the Pacific to try to locate the rocket debris had to turn back due to mechanical problems.
The paper also said a MiG-21 jet which was scrambled to protect the launch site crashed due to poor maintenance.
Seoul had learned that North Korean officials involved were "busy passing the buck" over the mission's failure, it reported.
"North Korea claimed it successfully put a satellite into orbit but it did not know where the projectile landed. That's because they had no radar capable of tracking it thousands of kilometres away," the conservative paper said.
Seoul's defence ministry declined comment, a spokesman telling AFP that all he could confirm was that North Korean fighter jets had scrambled.
The National Intelligence Service was not immediately available to comment.
Defying international pressure, North Korea fired a rocket Sunday which it said put a communications satellite into orbit.
Critics led by the United States however say it was a disguised long-range missile test, and have referred it to the UN Security Council.
Despite Pyongyang's claims that the satellite is now orbiting Earth, South Korea, Japan, the US military and a senior Russian official say no such object has been detected in orbit.
Foreign analysts have described the launch as a failed test of a long-range missile, saying it appeared the second and third stages failed to separate and caused the rocket to crash into the Pacific short of the designated area.
South Korean experts said the Taepodong-2 missile still travelled for some 3,200 kilometres (2,000 miles) - double the range the North achieved in 1998 with a Taepodong-1 launch.
North Korea's 1.2 million-strong military is the world's fifth largest. But analysts say the impoverished state has problems equipping it and even in some cases feeding soldiers.
Yonhap news agency, quoting an unidentified Seoul official, said a North Korean commercial vessel departed for the Pacific to try to track the rocket and possibly retrieve debris but had to turn back.
"We don't clearly know the mechanical problem that appears to have prevented the ship from sailing on. It likely has to do with outdated parts," the official was quoted as saying. -- AFP
