MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. Moscow proposes that all members of the international community come together and pledge not to be the first country to place weapons in outer space, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists.

"We are proposing to all countries, to all members of the international community, to join the political initiative not to be the first [country] to place arms in outer space," he said, replying to a question as to whether Moscow was going to work with Pyongyang on such a treaty after North Korea’s launch of an intelligence satellite.

The senior Russian diplomat also pointed out that Russia was happy with the fact that more than 30 countries had already officially joined Moscow in this initiative. "We hope that the number of participants will grow," Ryabkov said.

He stressed that a "military remote-sensing satellite is not a weapon, <…> it is not a space-weaponizing element." "This is an element of using space for military purposes but without deploying arms," the diplomat explained.

"Meanwhile, our initiative is precisely about not having any strike weapons in space. The Russian-Chinese draft of a relevant treaty on preventing an arms race in space which we continue to promote despite resistance from the US and its underlings also has the same goals," he pointed out.

On November 21, Pyongyang successfully launched its first Malligyong-1 intelligence satellite on a Chollima-1 carrier rocket and put it into orbit. In response, on November 22, South Korea announced partially suspending the inter-Korean agreement on reducing military tension in the region. This measure also involved the situation in no-fly zones. On November 23, the North Korean Defense Ministry said that it was not going to observe the agreement and would resume activity banned under it.