SEOUL: North Korea on Friday said it will launch a long-range rocket carrying a ‘working’ satellite to mark the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung’s birth next month, sparking regional condemnation that it was in breach of a UN resolution.
South Korea, which is still technically at war with the North after signing only an armistice to end the 1950-53 Korean War, said the ballistic launch was a provocation and a threat to regional security.
The foreign ministry said the launch was a violation of a 2009 Security Council resolution banning ballistic missile launches.
Japan echoed the South’s claim, saying any launch by North Korea, whether for a satellite or not, that uses ballistic missile technology violates Security Council resolutions.
‘We urge North Korea to exercise restraint and refrain from the launch,’ said the top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura.
The North, which said recently it would suspend long-range missile testing as part of talks with the United States, pledged that next month’s launch would not impact neighbouring countries.
Experts said the launch was clearly another long-range missile test, and could be seen as an act of brinkmanship to pressure Washington into more talks in return for aid.
In April 2009, the North conducted a similar ballistic rocket launch which resulted in a new round of toughened U.N. sanctions, squeezing the secretive state’s already troubled economy and deepening its isolation.
That launch, dismissed as a failure after the first stage fell into the Sea of Japan without orbiting a satellite, provoked outrage in Tokyo which had threatened to shoot down any debris or rocket that threatened its territory.
Another test failed in similar circumstances in 1998.
Washington says the North’s long-range ballistic missile programme is moving ahead quickly and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last year that the American mainland could come under threat within five years.
‘The DPRK is to launch a working satellite, Kwangmyongsong-3, manufactured by itself with indigenous technology to mark the 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il-sung,’ the North’s official KCNA said, quoting a spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology.
The launch will take place between April 12-16, KCNA said. It is scheduled to occur at around the same time its foes in the South hold a parliamentary election, and just over three weeks after a global nuclear security summit in Seoul. (UNI)