NK rejects calls to stop satellite launch plan

North Korea is going ahead with its plan to launch what it has described as “an observation satellite” next month despite international condemnation.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Sunday the launch, announced Friday, was a “materialization of our sovereign right to peaceful development in space,” refuting accusations by South Korea, the United States and China who view the move as a disguised test of a long-range missile in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The North said such criticism was a “sinister” provocation by “hostile forces,” which would be “sadly mistaken” if they thought it would cancel the launch.

Amid escalating criticism, Pyongyang said it will invite experts and journalists from other countries to view the liftoff.

The comments came two days after the (North) Korean Committee for Space Technology announced that it will place a Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite in orbit between April 12 and 16, carried into space by the new Unha-3 rocket.

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The committee said the launch would be part of celebrations marking the April 15 centenary of the birth of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung, grandfather of its current leader Kim Jong-un.

The Friday announcement was an embarrassment to the United States as Pyongyang agreed with Washington only 17 days ago that it would freeze missile and nuclear tests in return for 240,000 metric tons of food aid.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called it a “deal breaker,” raising strong skepticism about the delivery of the agreed food aid.

China, the North’s sole ally, also voiced concern over the move. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said in a statement on Friday that Beijing “sincerely hopes parties concerned stay calm and exercise restraint, and avoid escalation of tension that may lead to a more complicated situation.”

Other world powers urged North Korea to drop the launch plan.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura urged Pyongyang to abandon its plans, saying any rocket launch would be in contravention of international rules and could damage regional stability.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said the North Korean announcement “provokes serious concern” and urged it to reconsider.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the North not to carry out the launch, which he warned could breach U.N. sanctions resolutions.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban had reaffirmed his call on the North to comply with resolution 1874 from 2009 “which bans any launch using ballistic missile technology.” <Korea Times/Park Si-soo>

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