The North Korean satellite command center, during an open house for foreign journalists
North Korea has drawn international ire in the last few months with its plan to launch a satellite---called Bright Shining Star---that the United States and its allies perceived as a veiled attempt to test potential long-range weapons. The US even canceled food relief
worth about $200 million dollars to feed the country's starving population
, when the government announced that the launch would go forward as part of the festivities surrounding new leader Kim Jong-un's rise to power. The launch attempt today, however, failed, with the satellite breaking up and falling into the Yellow Sea. The satellite, which South Korean estimates say cost the country $450 million to build, reached barely a third of the height required to make orbit. This does not bode well for the scientists involved in the project, North Korea expert Markus Noland ...
