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NKorea to launch satellite in early April: report
2009-03-11
SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea said Thursday it has notified an international shipping agency of its planned satellite launch and South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported it would happen early next month. South Korean and US officials see such a launch as a disguised missile test which would breach a UN resolution, and have urged the hardline communist state to scrap its plans. The North gave the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and other world bodies "necessary information for the safe navigation of planes and ships" as part of preparations for launching "an experimental communications satellite", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. Yonhap, quoting a Seoul intelligence source, said the North had told the London-based IMO it plans to fire the rocket between April 4-8. There was no immediate confirmation. The nuclear-armed North has asserted its right to peaceful space research and says any attempt to shoot down its rocket will be seen as an act of war. KCNA said Pyongyang has also joined an international treaty and convention on the peaceful use of space. "The DPRK's (North Korea's) accession to the said treaty and convention will contribute to promoting international confidence and boosting cooperation in the scientific research into space and the satellite launch for peaceful purposes," it said. There have been reports for weeks that the North is preparing to launch its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2, from a base at Musudan-ri on its northeast coast. The missile could theoretically reach Alaska. The North's newly-elected parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, is expected to meet in early April to re-elect leader Kim Jong-Il as chairman of the National Defence Commission, the most powerful state body. The North has recently taken a series of steps which have raised tensions. Pyongyang ordered its military on combat alert and banned South Korean airlines from its airspace in protest at an ongoing US-South Korean military exercise, which it sees as a rehearsal for invasion. The US intelligence chief said Tuesday the North does indeed appear to be planning a space launch but added that the technology involved is indistinguishable from a ballistic missile test. "The North Koreans announced that they were going to do a space launch and I believe that that's what they intend," National Intelligence director Dennis Blair told a Congressional committee. The US and South Korea say a launch for any purpose would breach a UN resolution adopted after the North's last missile test in 2006. South Korea's Ministry of Land, Transort and Maritime Affairs said it was checking the Yonhap report. The National Intelligence Service also had no immediate confirmation. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the United States, China and other negotiating partners were willing to discuss a range of responses, even UN action, if North Korea test-fires a missile. The two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan are members of a six-party forum negotiating an end to the North's nuclear programmes in return for aid and diplomatic and security benefits. "We are outspoken in our opposition to the North Koreans' missile launch, and we believe that that is a unified position, and that each of the members of the six-party talks have attempted to dissuade North Korea from proceeding," Clinton said after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. "And we are also agreed that we will discuss a response if we are not successful in convincing them not to go forward with what is a very provocative act," Clinton said. She said Washington's negotiating partners were willing to respond to any launch "in a variety of ways, including the Security Council".
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