N. Korea to launch rocket capable to reach U.S.

PanARMENIAN.Net - North Korea has announced it would launch a long-range rocket next month to put a satellite into orbit, a move that would breach a United Nations ban imposed after previous launches, AFP reported.

Blast-off will be between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung, the communist state's official news agency and state television said on Friday, March 16.

The North's last long-range rocket launch on April 5, 2009, purportedly of a satellite, brought UN Security Council condemnation and a tightening of sanctions.

Pyongyang quit six-party nuclear disarmament talks in protest at the censure and conducted a second atomic weapons test the following month.

Friday's announcement came just 16 days after the North's new leaders agreed to suspend long-range missile tests as part of a deal under which it would receive 240,000 tons of U.S. food aid. That deal, under which Pyongyang also promised to freeze its uranium enrichment plant, had raised hopes of eased tensions under the new leadership. The North maintains that its satellite launches are for peaceful purposes while the United States and other nations say they are disguised missile tests.

A Unha-3 rocket will launch a home-built polar-orbiting earth observation satellite known as Kwangmyongsong-3, a spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology said in a statement.

Repeating its arguments of 2009, the North said such satellites are indispensable for economic development and in line with the peaceful use of space.

The launch "will greatly encourage the army and people... in the building of a thriving nation", it added.

"A safe flight orbit has been chosen so that carrier rocket debris to be generated during the flight would not have any impact on neighboring countries," it said, promising to abide by international regulations.

The North said the rocket would be launched southward from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Cholsan county, North Pyongan province on its west coast.

It has been developing a new launch site at Tongchang-ri in the county.

The Unha-3 is known outside the North as the Taepodong-3 and is theoretically capable of reaching U.S. territory, said Baek Seung-Joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.