April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Kim Jong Un suffered a public humiliation as North Korea’s third-generation leader unlike any his father or grandfather faced after the totalitarian state admitted a long-range rocket failed shortly after liftoff.
The launch was meant to mark the April 15 centennial of grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung and further cement the younger Kim’s assumption of the family mantle, which the government has been burnishing since
he took over in December. Its failure may raise questions of his hereditary hold on power as he deals with the country’s impoverished economy and international condemnation of its nuclear program.
“It’s going to be destructive in North Korea,” said Bruce W. Bennett, a senior defense analyst at Rand Corp. who is visiting Seoul. “They’re going to look at this as the failure of a young guy who hasn’t shown his mettle yet. We really don’t know the strength of his grip yet.”
South Korea warned that chances are “very high” the regime will conduct a nuclear test to seek redemption and domestic support. The U.S. called off food assistance to North Korea that was to be provided under a February deal, and the United Nations Security Council “deplored” the launch, according to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice.
Asian stocks climbed yesterday, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rising 0.9 percent. The won rose 0.5 percent.
20 Pieces Fell
The missile reached an altitude of 151 kilometers (93 miles) before disintegrating into 20 pieces and falling into the ocean 100 to 150 kilometers off the western coast, South Korean Major General Shin Won Sik said in Seoul. North Korea’s state- run Korean Central News Agency said scientists “are now looking into the cause of the failure.”
The rare public admission contrasted with previous tests, and came after the regime invited foreign journalists to watch the launch. When North Korea fired a Taepodong-2 missile in April 2009 that crashed into the Pacific Ocean, it claimed it had been a successful satellite launch.
“North Korea promised transparency throughout this ‘satellite’ launch to prove that it wasn’t a missile test,” said Yang Moo Jin, a professor at University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “They had to keep their word because the backlash would have been worse if they had tried to mask it as a success.”
Kim Jong Un became North Korea’s leader after the Dec. 17 death of his father Kim Jong Il. The third son of the late dictator, he is thought to be less than 30 years old, went to school in Switzerland and resembles his grandfather. He was made a four-star general in September 2010 in the first official notice he was being groomed to succeed his father.
Food Deal
He inherited a country of 24 million people suffering from chronic malnutrition and dependent upon China for assistance. North Korea has twice detonated atomic devices and refuses to abandon its nuclear program.
North Korea agreed in February to suspend missile and nuclear tests in exchange for 240,000 tons of U.S. food aid, a deal that was broken by yesterday’s events. Japan and South Korea joined the Obama administration in condemning the launch.
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