U.S. Should Not Apply Double Standards to DPRK′s Satellite Launch: FM Spokesman

Pyongyang, March 27 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK Tuesday gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA as regards the U.S. president's unjust assertion over the DPRK's planned satellite launch:

The U.S. chief executive called the DPRK's planned launch of a satellite for development of science and technology for peaceful purposes a provocation threatening international peace and security. This reflects his wrong conception.

The U.S. says that it has no hostility toward the DPRK, but it has not yet departed from the inveterate conception of confrontation. That is why it regards the launch of a satellite for peaceful purposes as a launch of long-range missile.

The DPRK invited foreign experts and journalists to clearly observe its satellite launch so as to prove with transparency that it is part of scientific and technological work for peaceful use of space irrelevant to any military purpose.

The DPRK also invited experts of the U.S. National Aeronautics Space Agency so that they can witness for themselves the peaceful nature of the satellite launch in the DPRK.

The DPRK and the U.S. took much effort to sign an agreement, creating a favorable situation. There will be no reason whatsoever for the DPRK to launch a long-range missile at this time.

It is the behests of leader Kim Jong Il to launch a working satellite to mark the 100th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung and it is a routine work that was planned and has been pushed forward from long ago.

At the DPRK-U.S. high-level talks, the DPRK consistently maintained that a moratorium on long-range missile launch does not include satellite launch for the peaceful purposes. As a result, the DPRK-U.S. agreement dated February 29 specified a moratorium on long-range missile launch, not "launch of long-range missile including satellite launch" or "launch with the use of ballistic missile technology".

The DPRK will not give up the satellite launch for peaceful purposes, which is a legitimate right of a sovereign state and requirement essential for economic development

The U.S. chief executive said that he has no hostility toward the DPRK. If it was sincere, he should drop the confrontation conception of standing in the way of the DPRK, though belatedly, and make a bold decision to acknowledge that the DPRK also has a right to launch satellites.

Whether the U.S. applies double standards to the DPRK's satellite launch or not will prove the sincerity of the U.S. chief executive's remarks. -0-