NEWS,18.03.2012.

US: North Korean satellite launch would be "deal-breaker"

North Korea's announcement Friday of plans to launch an observation satellite in April brought condemnation from the United States, South Korea, Japan and the United Nations due to concerns that the launch could be used to test ballistic missile technology. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington now had 'grave concerns' about the February 29 agreement in which North Korea agreed to a moratorium on its nuclear and long-range missile programmes and international nuclear inspections, in exchange for 240,000 metric tons of food aid from the United States. 'We made clear unequivocally that we considered that any satellite launch would be a deal-breaker,' she said Friday. The Kwangmyongsong-3, borne by the Unha-3 carrier rocket, was to be launched between April 12-16 to mark the centenary of the birth of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, who was born on April 15. Nuland said that a launch would be 'highly provocative' and in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874, which banned launches using ballistic missile technology. The February 29 agreement had raised hopes that the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes - including North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia - could be resumed. Nuland said that US officials consulted Friday with other participants, and all were 'caught by some surprise' by North Korea's satellite announcement. 'Now, the question is for all of the six-party members to make clear that this is not the way to go forward if (the North Koreans) want to work with us,' she said. Nuland said that a North Korean launch would create 'tensions,' making 'implementation of any kind of a nutritional agreement quite difficult.' The South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed 'grave concern' over the planned launch, which it said would be a 'clear violation' of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874, which bans 'any launch using ballistic missile technology.' Seoul said it would 'closely cooperate' with the other members of the six-party talks 'so that North Korea ceases such a provocative action.' In Tokyo, chief cabinet secretary Osamu Fujimura said: 'Japan will strongly urge North Korea not to go ahead with the launch.' The possible satellite launch 'undermines the efforts to settle various issues, which have been made through talks' with North Korea, Fujimura said. A spokesman for the North Korean Committee for Space Technology was quoted by Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA as saying the move would 'offer an important occasion of putting the country's technology of space use for peaceful purposes on a higher stage.' The 'polar-orbiting, Earth-observation satellite will be blasted off southward' from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the eastern province of North Pyongan, which lies on the Chinese border and Yellow Sea, the spokesman said. Pyongyang denied any military aspect to the launch. 'The DPRK will strictly abide by relevant international regulations and usage concerning the launch of scientific and technological satellites for peaceful purposes,' the spokesman said. Previous launches of multi-stage rockets by North Korea in 1998 and 2009, which Pyongyang said aimed to put satellites into orbit, were condemned by the US, South Korea and Japan as potential tests of military ballistic technology. The deal, under which Pyongyang was also to stop the enrichment of uranium at a major nuclear facility and permit visits by nuclear inspectors, had raised hopes of a possible resumption of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, which have been stalled since late 2008. The talks reached an agreement in 2005 in which North Korea was to dismantle its nuclear programme, but the reclusive communist state has since carried out two nuclear tests in addition to the long-range missile launches. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 1874 in June 2009 in response to the tests. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Pyongyang 'to reconsider its decision in line with its recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches.' He sai a launch would be a violation of the UN resolutions.