North Korea Launches Its Missile…And There’s Not Much Anyone Can Do About It

North Korea has launched its missile. A satellite it is not. No country has detected any transmission from it. All reports indicate that after the second stage of the rocket burned out, it and the payload dropped into the Pacific Ocean.

So what does the world do now?

Not much.

Japan threatened to shoot the rocket down if it flew over Japanese airspace. They didn’t. South Korea and the United States have threatened “consequences.”

That means going to the United Nations Security Council and proposing dramatic sanctions and watching China veto it. Maybe Russia will join China too. Neither have a love for North Korea, but North Korea is a buffer between them and South Korea. The Chinese, in particular, don’t want South Korea on their border.

Did North Korea want to put a satellite into orbit or did it just want to test its rocket? No one knows for sure, but the North Korean rocket did fly approximately where it was supposed to go. That means North Korea scored a propaganda coup by thumbing its nose at the world. Even more significantly, the rocket launch advertises that North Korea has an intercontinental missile it can sell to Iran and other foreign buyers who express interest.

What else of those “consequences” besides the expected veto of proposed UN sanctions?

It probably means that a deal will be made with North Korea for food and other essentials. In return, North Korea will “give up” part of its nuclear or rocket program and…then, in a couple of years, they will go back to the same game of spitting in the face of the world in exchange for food and other essentials. In other words, its a bit like a dysfunctional family that likes to play with guns.

I guess if this is what we have to do to avoid a devastating war, then so be it. Eventually, North Korea will disintegrate from its corrupt and rotting core and fall squarely into the hands of South Korea.