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PacNet #19 – Kim Jong un Looks Up at the Sky: Another North Korean Threat or a Sunshine from the Milky Way?

In the last two decades the West has learned only too well that dealing with North Korea is no trifle. But 2012 could be the year for a crucial divide; it marks not only the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, but also the 20th anniversary of the first joint North-South declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The two events seem somehow in contrast since Pyongyang preannounced in mid-March the launch of a satellite next month to commemorate the founder of the ruling communist dynasty, the grandfather of the newly enthroned Kim Jong Un.