South Korea's 'warning' caused confusion

North Korea launched a rocket with an artificial satellite to the south yesterday morning, but it was unsuccessful due to an engine failure. North Korea said, “The new rocket ‘Chollima-1’ equipped with the military reconnaissance satellite ‘Malligyeong-1’ fell to the West Sea of Korea after losing thrust due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine after the separation of the first stage during the normal flight”. North Korea announced a "second launch as soon as possible." In response, the Seoul Metropolitan Government sent cell phone alerts signaling, "evacuation preparations" in relation to the North Korean rocket launch. However, it was withdrawn by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security when it said the alerts were "issued by mistake," illustrating that the South Korean government reacted in confusion.

North Korea's provocation by launching a rocket toward the south under the guise of developing a reconnaissance satellite resulted in failure. And it appears that it is the result of rushing the launch unreasonably to meet the regime's internal and external political agenda even though more technical preparations are needed. The day before, North Korea's second-in-command in the military announced that it was planning to make the launch sometime in June, intentionally causing tensions in neighboring countries to ease. Nevertheless, on the last day of May, the North tricked by launching its rocket by surprise but failed miserably, revealing its shoddy rocket technology.

This failure may be enough to dampen the high-spirited Kim Jong Un, but it will not be enough to deter North Korea's continued provocations. North Korea put a satellite back into orbit eight months after the failed launch of the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite in 2012. In addition, despite numerous failed launches due to ballistic missile misfires or mid-air explosions in 2016-2017, North Korea never stopped developing mid and long-range missiles. Such folly will likely reignite Kim Jong Un's provocations toward the international community that has been in a hiatus for a while.

The Korean government and the international community should further solidify their resolution to respond to the obvious illegal act of violating the United Nations sanctions resolution against North Korea. The government has already warned North Korea that it "will have to bear the consequences and suffering." North Korea's failure should not be an opportunity for us to resume a lowered response posture. In other words, South Korea should push for a resolution to condemn and punish North Korea by convening the UN Security Council without hesitation. In addition, it is necessary to launch an all-out diplomatic war by putting up a new front to implement sanctions against North Korea.

Furthermore, this provocation posed a major challenge to the South Korean government's crisis management system, such as the warning alert system triggered by North Korea issues. Citizens who received the alert text message from the city of Seoul, which went off about 10 minutes after North Korea's rocket launch, were uneasy because of the “text message that did not specify the place or method of evacuation.” In addition, access to the portal site was temporarily suspended due to the surge in Internet search query volume. Then, about 20 minutes later, a text message from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, saying that the alert from Seoul was "sent by mistake," left the citizens to be further confused. They are even pointing fingers at each other about these failed attempts at coordination between government agencies. And we would not be in a position to make any comment even if North Korea were mocking the Korean government.

It is the President’s Office that should be held accountable for the confusion caused in response mechanism. This is because it is the responsibility of the National Security Office - a security control tower - to assess the level of threat posed by North Korea and identify countermeasures accordingly. North Korea had long been professing to conduct rocket launches, which is why government offices and local governments should have made thorough preparations to address the North’s missile threats. Now is not the time to be complacent about our response posture.