AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Washington: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday said the apparent failure of North Korea's long-range Taepodong-2 missile failed was a “fact.” “Let me put it this way,” he told reporters. “Why would someone spend that much money and launch that expensive an effort and then only gain 38 or 40 seconds worth of information from it?”
Rumsfeld said he had been on and off the telephone with key US commanders for days before North Korea launched the Taepodong and six other shorter range missiles Tuesday and Wednesday.
He said he was notified “probably within a minute of when they occurred.”
Details of what happened “move around as more information is gained,” he said.
“You get one sensor and you learn a certain amount and you make some judgements. You get another sensor … and you learn some more, and you begin to reduce down the areas of ambiguity. And that process is still going forward,” he said.
But he told reporters “the fact that it failed is a fact.”
On the other hand, Rumsfeld said he did not understand why North Korea launched so many missiles.
“I'm not a psychiatrist,” he told reporters. “I don't know why they are doing what they are doing.”
