JoongAng Ilbo, a major daily in South Korea, reported on the circumstances around the rocket launch. The report said the ship sent by North Korea to retrieve its rocket debris broke down halfway into the journey, while its monitoring team lost track of its rocket, thereby creating confusion and dampening the initial excitement over the launch. 韓国の中央日報によれば、北朝鮮はミサイルの残骸(ブースター等)を回収するために船舶を送ったが、途中でトラブルが起 こり目的地に到達できなかった。北朝鮮のミサイルのモニタリング・チームは途中で追跡に失敗し、そのため混乱が起こっ たという。
Despite the technical ill-preparedness, the North Korean scientists had to meet the deadline in April, ahead of yesterday’s opening of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the rubber-stamp parliament in North Korea. テポ丼の発射には技術的問題があったが、北朝鮮の議会の開催日である4月に発射を行うように科学者達にデッドラインが 設定されていた。
Before Pyongyang launched its rocket, the North came up with an idea of how to retrieve the rocket debris. The initial plan was to send two military vessels with engineers on board to the areas where the remains were likely to fall. ミサイル発射前に、その残骸の回収計画が作られ、初期の案では軍の艦船を落下予想地点に送ることになっていた。
But the authorities feared a possible hostile reaction from Japan for dispatching military vessels near the Japanese territory. So as a “safe measure”, Pyongyang instead sent two commercial freighters, one to the Sea of Japan, east of the launch site at Musudan-ri in the country’s north-east, and the other to the Pacific Ocean, 3,600km from the launch site. しかし北朝鮮は日本近海に軍の艦船を送ることに日本が過剰に反応することを恐れ、より安全策をとって商船を送る事と した。ひとつは日本海に、もうひとつを発射地点から北東3600キロの太平洋に派遣する。
The first vessel was in place as scheduled, but the second commercial ship broke down halfway to its destination. “The North Koreans became greatly flustered and tried to place the failure on to others, while the South’s intelligence officials, who were on the snooping, were basking themselves in irrepressible laughter,” the newspaper quoted the intelligence official as saying. 最初の商船は予定通り到着したが、二番目の商船は途中でトラブルが起こり予定地転移到達できなかった。北朝鮮は是を怒っ て別の船を送ろうとした。
In terms of tracking down the rocket, North Korea lacked the radar technology to trace it and was unable to identify the trajectory of the second and third sections of the rocket. ミサイルの追跡については北朝鮮のレーダー技術が充分ではないために、二段目と三段目のロケットの軌道追跡が出来なかっ た。結果的に北朝鮮は日本やアメリカからの情報に頼らざるを得なかった(後略)