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Russia urges North Korea to reverse its rocket launch decision

Russia is ready to continue jointly with partners on six-party talks efforts towards the settlement of problems of the Korean peninsula
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, December 3 (Itar-Tass) — Russia has demanded from North Korea to give up its decision to launch a rocket carrying an earth satellite, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said on Monday.

“We insistently urge the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to reconsider the decision to launch a rocket carrying a man-made earth satellite,” the document said. “We have repeatedly drawn North Korea’s attention to inadmissibility of ignoring resolution 1874 of the UN Security Council that unequivocally prohibits the DPRK from rocket launches with the use of ballistic technologies,” the statement stressed.

“Russia has taken with regret the report of an officer from the DPRK’s Committee for Space Technology about the launch of a rocket carrying an earth satellite, scheduled between December 10 and 22,” the statement noted.

“We invariably proceed from the fact that as a member of the United Nations Organizations, the DPRK must implement the decisions of the UN Security Council that are binding for all member states of that organization,” it added.

“We don’t question the right of the DPRK to space research for peaceful purposes, the implementation of which however is possible solely within the context of the cancellation of the above decisions,” the statement emphasized. “We urge the DPRK government to reverse the decision,” it added.

“Russia, on its part, is ready to continue jointly with partners on six-party talks efforts towards the settlement of problems of the Korean peninsula, which would see among other results the lifting of sanction restrictions against Pyongyang and creation of conditions for full participation of the DPRK in international cooperation in different spheres, including peaceful uses of space and atomic energy,” it stressed.

The North Korean Committee for Space Technology said a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite will be launched from the Sohae Space Centre in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province between December 10 and 22.

The launch will be made for peaceful and scientific purposes in compliance with international regulations, the statement said. A safe flight trajectory has been chosen so that parts of Unnha-3 carrier rocket that might fall during the launch process would not affect neighboring countries, it stressed.