North Korea Missile Launch is Extortion Attempt

North Korea hopes to achieve multiple aims with its planned missile test, which it claims is the launch of a satellite, says Mark Groombridge, deputy editor of LIGNET.com and an expert on nonproliferation. Not only does the test commemorate the 100th birthday of the “great leader,” Kim Il Sung, but it also is meant to demonstrate to the world that his grandson, 28-year-old Kim Jong Un, is firmly in control of the military. And it is also to keep up appearances — to maintain North Korea’s threatening posture and policy of global extortion to extract food aid and other assistance from the international community.

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