By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is using the rocket launch as a multi-purpose card, Seoul analysts said.
Internally, they said, the move is aimed at solidifying internal unity and gaining more concessions from South Korea and the United States as well as the international community in future negotiations.
In its latest report, the National Assembly Research Service said the launch also targets the Lee Myung-bak government, which has maintained conditional engagement in return for measures needed for denuclearization.
``The North is sending a signal with the rocket launch that Lee should give up what it called the hostile North Korea policy,'' the report said.
Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University in Seoul said that North Korea might intend to use rocket technology as a card in possible negotiations with the United States.
Rep. Song Young-sun of the Pro-Park Geun-hye Coalition told The Korea Times that North Korea fired a rocket to unify its people and military on the one hand, while threatening South Korea and the U.S. government to give carrots instead of sticks on the other.
``Pyongyang intends to talk directly with Washington and by firing a rocket as scheduled it hopes to gain more in possible one-on-one negotiations with the United States,'' Song said.
She continued, ``That does not mean that it considers the six-party talks useless. In fact, Pyongyang knows clearly that the six-party talks are a very useful vehicle from which it can benefit, so it will never give up the multi-lateral negotiations as well.''
The lawmaker forecast that Washington will ask China and Russia to persuade North Korea to return to the talks and the North will take their call in the end, if made.
The Stalinist country is the world's dominant exporter of ballistic missiles, and income from this accounts for a significant source of its hard currency. It has exported the technology to several countries, including Iran and Syria.
The pro-North Korea newspaper Choson Sinbo in Tokyo lately made it clear that rocket technology could be used for military as well as economic purposes by exporting it to other countries.
The paper stated that the United States sat down with North Korea to freeze the latter's missile negotiations back in the late 1990s after the it tested a Daepodong-1 missile in August 1998.
Washington and Pyongyang reached agreement in September 1999 on a moratorium on additional long-range missile tests and almost reached an agreement to freeze North Korea's indigenous missile program after a series of talks.
The final deal, however, was not completed because the outgoing Clinton administration ran out of time.