The North Korea Missile Launch
Just saw the (purported) video of the launch of the North Korea rocket. Release of the video coincided with our 19 course wrap dinner finishing a four-day marathon of coverage of Kim Jong-Il’s latest triumph for the Channel.
Yes, North Korea is one of my beats but also, yes, it’s ten hours away by plane from London with the right tail winds…and a 13 hour time difference from New York, so covering breaking news here is always a bit….taxing.
But Producer Tadek , Camerman Olaf and I did it, thanks to a quick dispatch Friday by Assignment Chief Anastasia and with help from local fixer Jessica. We were able to say at the top of Geraldo’s show at 10p Saturday night that South Korean government officials were saying the rocket would launch within the hour. And, like Communist clockwork, at 10:30 it did.
Then, of course, came a few dozen live shots trying to figure out exactly what took place, satellite or no satellite, two or three stages, where’s Kim?, what does it mean for world peace, etc.
We do our lives from the Grand Hyatt in Seoul. The nice PR woman Ms. Hwang and the staff give us the run of the place and it’s a huge help. A nice big patio with a good view of the backside of Seoul and high-speed internet means the logistics of sending out our message is no worries. Staying on top of the story is not too hard either. Catching two or three hours of sleep in between around the clock transmissions is always the biggest challenge.
Having been to the Hermit Kingdom last year on that visit with the NY Philharmonic is a huge help in understanding the story. It is a country like none other in the world. Able to pull off technological feats few other nations can do while at the same time leaving its millions to scrounge for sustenance is remarkable. In a very twisted way.
It’s too easy to make a joke of the whole thing. I half-seriously gave FOX & Friends heck for running a Team America clip in front of my live shot Monday am. “I spend months trying to get a visa into this place and you play that!” I yelled at Brian.
And then when poor Tadek and Olaf were trying to cover our story with pictures at four in the morning, I had to keep restraining them from dipping into the laughable propaganda videos of goose-stepping North Korean soldiers and choreographed rocket liftoffs.
No, in fact, it’s a deadly serious story. 50,000 Americans died trying to sort the thing out a while back. Now half of Asia quakes, and the rest of the world worries, when Pyongyang tests a crude nuke device or sends up a rocket flare.
It’s probably the best example of the unpredictable and high stakes nature of foreign policy and why President Obama shouldn’t underestimate its importance as he grapples with our economic woes.
Because all politics, no matter how whacky and international….is local. Especially when Dear Leader Kim takes one or two steps closer to landing a nuclear payload on a backyard in San Diego.
Thursday, the North Korean Supreme Assembly will declare Kim Jong-Il Dear Leader for a bit more time, the launch an unqualified success, and the country on its way to being a perfect state by 2012.
We’ll be on a Korean Air flight back to London.
And the story will go on.
My favorite moment of the coverage was mixing it up with a bunch of rowdy senior citizens in downtown Seoul. Like the movie Cocoon gone agit-prop these old timers still remember when there wasn’t a north or a south Korea. And when Kim Jong Il was just a nasty glint in the eye of father Kim.
“Obama must be strong!” screamed one South Korean AARP member into my face. Before running off to burn a rocket effigy. And mix it up with South Korean riot police.
Yes he can…and should be.
Check out Greg’s report from Seoul, South Korea:
done
Greg Palkot is a foreign correspondent for FNC. Palkot has been an
integral part of FNC's coverage of the War on Terror and was embedded
with troops at the time of Saddam Hussein's capture. 
Is there any news here or not? So many words, so little news…
Now look, as I have said many times in the past, I am going to punish them. Just as soon as
I can find a place to hide. Wow I got three of the chosen one’s favorite statements into one
sentence !! Don’t I get three gold stars, or something ?
We can’t say anything about Obama now ? Surprise, surprise learn something new every day. I didn’t know that FOX was owned by CNN.
I love the ending comment on the video, pretty classic.
that’s messed up how north korea tries to kill us
China needs to realize that by playing the old game of giving the U.S. and Japan something to keep their defensive posture occupied, it has now forced Japan into re-arm mode and the sooner the better!!! The Chinese people should review the history of the Japanese occupation of their country and realize that the Chicom leadership has once again started a repeat of history!!! We can no longer afford to defend Japan and Japan can no longer be intimidated by a rogue nation. All I can say is Banzaii!!!
All countries have been week kneed on North Korea, especially Japan. Japan has a mighty industrial nation and depends on the US for military help. They have no complaints and really, the US needn’t have warned North Korea about the launch as it was always obvious nobody really cared about doing anything about it. Korea has always had a free hand to do whatever they wanted. So does Israel, for that matter.
Dear Sir. I keep hearing about these rogue nations preparing uranium for enrichment. I am not the smartest guy in the world but you do not need uranium to make a nuke. Didn’t we make one from Hydrogen and drop it in WWII? If they can make a nuke and all they need is uranium why not just use hydrogen. I feel very scared for us and our allies.
“WE” spent the last eight years ignoring this place, and now suddenly it’s all “Obama’s fault.”
You folks are seriously delusional.
Dear A. DiVita: it is obvious that you are not the smartest guy in the world, but you have plenty to fear nonetheless. When GW Bush started spying on Americans, my first reaction was that this would lead other presidents to do the same. And now, the Obama administration is playing the same dumb arse games with our rights as Americans.
Let us remember the brave fighting men & women, who gave their lives defending South Korea.
The UN must display unity and deal seriously with this situation.
For those nations who share a common caution about North Korea, the reality is glaringly axiomatic: we’re between the proverbial rock and hard place.
There are no viable response options for us and our allies. Kim Jong-Il, Glorious Leader, knows this. Their recent launch is a confirmation of their military missile and nuclear arms programs. It also serves as a kind of probe of their enemies’ positions; mainly, our position.
Which is—what?—initiate a unilateral war with North Korea? Hardly, under present circumstances, and perhaps, with Obama in office, not even when the balloon goes up over there, should they choose to have their 153+ divisions and brigades roll over the South Korean army and our meager units. A worrisome prospect.
Of course, you just never know with our Japanese friends: there’s always the remote possibility they’ll execute some form of “punitive military response,” what with their penchant for surprise attacks. . . .
The most the UN worthies can do is harrumph, repeat the tired, lofty things about peace, and then go out on the town, leave their cars double-parked, and enjoy an evening in Manhattan.
Sanctions? If he must, Kim can circumnavigate all of us and still get the hair mousse and DVD movies he now covets. Weapons procurement? No problem.
For many, it’s “Let’s wait and see”—something the French tacitly said while watching the massing German army from behind their vaunted Maginot Line fortress.