Does anyone know whether there was an explicit government directive to Japanese media to insert the phrase "it's really a missile" into every single (and I mean every single) reference to the DPRK satellite launch? Especially in NHK newscasts the constant repetition of this phrase, became almost surrealistic.
In some news casts there was only a few seconds separating one "the North Korean satellite really a missile" from the next repetition of "the North Korean satellite really a missile."

Does anyone know whether South Korean media used this peculiar expression?

Is there any intrinsic difference between satellite launch vehicles and "missiles" other than payload and where they are pointed?

I'm not a rocket surgeon as George Bush would have said, but it seems to me that the Japanese H-IIB could easily be used as a "missile" if the Japanese were so inclined. Indeed, if my foggy memory serves me, when the Japanese space program started, there was opposition from the left in Japan because it was seen as leading to the development of "missile" technology.

Is there anything noteworthy in and of itself about a "missile" being used to launch a satellite? Again, if foggy memory serves me, the US launched a number of satellites for both military and non-military purposes using vehicles that in other incarnations were called "ballistic missiles." Indeed, I seem to recall that the first "scientific satellites" launches (and
attempts) were done by US military agencies.

I'm not trying to defend the Workers' Paradise, but it seems to me that there was an inordinate amount of hyperventilation in the local media, especially NHK, and I have to wonder how spontaneous it was.

EHK