North Korea has scheduled a satellite launch for early next month, South Korean officials said yesterday, as Washington and Seoul told Pyongyang to scrap what they see as a disguised missile test.
Pyongyang has informed the International Maritime Organization (IMO) that it will fire a rocket to launch the satellite between April 4 and April 8, an official at Seoul’s maritime affairs ministry said.
Citing information from the IMO, the official said the North had told the UN regulatory agency of two risk areas, one in the Pacific Ocean and the other in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
“The IMO is currently working on an official safety notice, which it will soon hand out to its member countries,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier yesterday, the North said it had provided “necessary information for the safe navigation of planes and ships” as part of preparations for launching “an experimental communications satellite.”
South Korean and US officials believe the real intention is to test a Taepodong-2 missile that could theoretically reach Alaska.
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.
There have been reports for weeks that the North is preparing to test-fire the Taepodong-2 from a base at Musudan-ri on the northeast coast.
The missile failed after 40 seconds when first launched in July 2006, and the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a halt to such tests.
Three months after that, the North staged an atomic weapons test. It is unclear whether it has the capability to manufacture a nuclear warhead.
Seoul’s Yonhap news agency said a missile has not been set upright at Musudan-ri, but launch preparations could be completed within two weeks.
Tensions are already high after Pyongyang ordered its military on combat alert and banned South Korean airlines from its airspace. It was protesting an ongoing US-South Korean military exercise, which it sees as a rehearsal for invasion.
North Korea also announced it had joined an international treaty and convention on the peaceful use of space. South Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed that Pyongyang this month sent relevant documents to Russia’s foreign ministry and to the UN.
“The North’s accession to the treaty is aimed at paving the way for claiming that the launch, which may come in the future, is to put a satellite in orbit,” spokesman Moon Tae-young said. “Irrespective of those moves, such a launch would be a breach of UN Resolution 1718.”
Japan’s government said it “would not tolerate” any North Korean act that raises regional tensions.
Russia’s chief nuclear negotiator, Alexei Borodavkin, urged restraint.
“There should be restraint, there should be an evading of any actions which could undermine security and stability on the peninsula,” he told reporters after talks with his Seoul counterpart, Wi Sung-lac.
Asked whether any launch would violate a UN resolution, Borodavkin replied: “Let us wait and see what will be the real technical parameters of this launch.”
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