North Korea launches satellite, Xinhua editors confused

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North Korean chutzpah

The game goes on:

North Korea launches a second rate rocket comically named Type O’ Dong (properly Taepodong-2), and the world freaks out. Not the world actually, just several major Western leaders, and CNN, BBC World News and most of the big Anglophone media.

Meanwhile, in China, state-owned news agency Xinhua’s editors, already working overtime during the long weekend of Qingming Festival (清明节), have been put in a horrible situation:

How should Xinhua respond to the the unpredictable actions (and unpredictable rockets) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a Chinese ally and general good bloke when it comes to standing up to arrogant Europeans and Americans?

The answer, it seems, is Drudge Report style headlines with no annotation. This is the text of Xinhua’s English website’s top photo story and top featured article:

S Korean gov’t officially confirms rocket as satellite: S Korean TV

South Korea’s foreign ministry officially confirmed the vehicle fired off by the DPRK Sunday was a satellite, South Korea’s news channel YTN reported.

S Korea says DPRK failed to put satellite into orbit 18:42:52

Russia confirms DPRK satellite launch 16:22:33

S KOREAN GOVERNMENT TO JOIN U.S.-LED PSI: YONHAP 15:08:07

DPRK SAYS SATELLITE HAS BEEN SENT INTO ORBIT 14:54:02

DPRK SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES ROCKET: KCNA 14:30:02

UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO HOLD CONSULTATIONS ON DPRK: DIPLOMATIC SOURCES 11:49:08

U.S. TO TAKE “APPROPRIATE STEPS” IN RESPONSE TO DPRK’S ROCKET LAUNCH: STATE DEPARTMENT 11:29:06

DPRK ROCKET CARRIES SATELLITE: YONHAP 11:05:13

DPRK’S ROCKET LAUNCH CONFIRMED: U.S. 10:54:00

JAPANESE MEDIA SAYS NO REPORTS OF DAMAGE IN JAPAN AFTER DPRK LAUNCH 10:52:59

SECOND STAGE OF DPRK ROCKET APPEARS TO FALL INTO PACIFIC OCEAN: JAPAN 10:52:09

JAPAN SAYS DPRK ROCKET APPEARS TO HAVE PASSED OVER JAPAN AND LANDED IN SEA 10:46:05

DPRK’S ROCKET APPEARS TO BE FLYING OVER PACIFIC 10:42:09

JAPANESE GOVERNMENT SAYS DPRK APPEARS TO LAUNCH ROCKET 10:37:25

FLASH: DPRK LAUNCHES ROCKET: YONHAP 2009-04-05 10:36:49

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