North Korea: The Launch

From the New York Times:

North Korea defied the United States, China and a series of United Nations resolutions by launching a rocket on Sunday that the country said was designed to propel a satellite into space, but that much of the world viewed as an effort to prove it is edging toward the capability to shoot a nuclear warhead on a longer-range missile.

North Korea launched the rocket at 11:30 a.m. local time, or 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, said the office of the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. Early reports from the Japanese prime minister’s office indicated that the three-stage rocket appeared to launch successfully, with the first stage falling into the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and the second stage into the Pacific. South Korea vowed a “stern and resolute” response to the North’s “reckless act.”

...The North’s Kwangmyongsong-2, or "Lodestar-2," named after the propaganda nickname of its leader, Kim Jong-il, is in an orbit 490 to 1,426 kilometers, 304 to 886 miles, from the Earth and circling once every 104 minutes, said the North’s state-run news agency, KCNA. South Korean officials could not immediately verify the North’s claim.

...But what may have mattered most to North Korea was simply demonstrating that it had the ability to launch a multistage rocket that could travel thousands of miles.

The motivation for the test appeared as much political as technological: After acquiring the fuel for six or more nuclear weapons during the Bush administration, and negotiating a halt of its main nuclear reactor in return for aid, North Korea’s recent statements appear to be a bid for attention from the Obama administration.

The launching provides one of the first tests of Mr. Obama’s reaction to a provocation, on the weekend that he is scheduled to lay out for the first time, in a speech in Prague, his strategy to counter proliferation threats.

“With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint and further isolated itself from the community of nations,” Mr. Obama said in a statement on Sunday.

What now?

Obama stated the obvious.

Is it time to gird our loins?