North says it will launch satellite into orbit in April
![테스트](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2012/03/16214045.jpg)
In this April 5, 2009, file photo taken from KRT video, the Taepodong-2 lifts off from its launch pad in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province. [YONHAP]
The technology to be used in the launching of the “earth observation satellite” has previously been condemned by the United States and the United Nations Security Council as a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
According to The Associated Press, the U.S. Department of State said North Korea’s planned rocket launch is “highly provocative.”
“Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with North Korea’s recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency released a statement issued by the Korean Committee of Space Technology declaring that the regime will launch the satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 to celebrate the centennial of the birth of founder Kim Il Sung.
“Marking the 100th anniversary of great leader and comrade Kim Il Sung, we come to launch a practical satellite manufactured by our own techniques and powers,” the statement read.
“The Kwangmyongsong-3 is an earth-observing, polar-orbiting satellite, and it will be blasted off southward using carrier rocket Unha-3 from a launch pad in Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province, between April 12 and 16.
“We arranged a safe flight orbit so that debris generating from the carrier rocket does not have any impact on neighboring countries during the flight,” the statement read.
“The launch of earth-observing satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 will strongly encourage our military and people to push ahead with the establishment of a strong, prosperous nation and become an important opportunity to bring our regime’s peaceful use of space technology to a new level.”
In the statement, the regime pledged to abide by “all of international regulations and customs regarding the peaceful launch of a scientific, technological satellite” and “guarantees the transparency of the firing.”
The South’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a statement yesterday following the announcement.
“The government now expresses serious concerns about North Korea’s plan to launch a so-called 'practical satellite'” the statement read. “If the North fires the ‘practical satellite,’ it apparently violates UN Security Council Resolution 1874 and becomes a crucial provocation threatening peace and security on the Korea Peninsula and in East Asia.
“We urge the North to immediately stop this provocative act. … The government will closely cooperate with concerned countries, including members of the six-party talks, in order to make North Korea stop this provocation.”
North Korea fired its first satellite, Kwangmyongsong, in 1998, which was viewed as a long-range missile test and called Taepodong-1 by the international community.
The North launched the first stage of the Taepodong-2 in 2006 and completed the second stage in 2009.
The latest Taepodong-2 failed to reach orbit, according to the United States and the South, flying only 3,200 kilometers (1,990 miles) and falling into the Pacific Ocean.
By Kim Hee-jin [heejin@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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