North Korea Seeks Political Gain From Rocket Launch

By CHOE SANG-HUN, HELENE COOPER and DAVID E. SANGER

Published: April 6, 2009

[...]

Although the debris of the North Korean rocket fell hundreds of kilometers short of where the North had said they would land in the Pacific, “the launch carries big political and military significance,” said Jeung Young-tai, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

“No country will be naive enough to believe that it was a peaceful space program,” Mr. Jeung said.

“North Korea is on the threshold of becoming an intercontinental ballistic missile country.”

Peter Hayes, director of the Nautilus Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank, said the main motivation behind the launch was “to demonstrate the strength and vitality of Kim Jong Il’s leadership to the military and the population, and for the scientific sector to declare its fealty to Kim Jong Il’s leadership.” [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/asia/07korea.html?scp=8&sq=north%20korea&st=cse