No Russian Observers to Monitor DPRK Launch

    2012-04-05 03:21:12     Xinhua       Web Editor: luodan

Russia will not send specialists to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to monitor its launch of a new satellite, federal space agency Roscosmos said on Wednesday. "On March 21, Roscosmos received from the DPRK embassy in Moscow an invitation to observe the launch of the Kwangmyongsong-3," a Roscosmos spokesman was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency. However, Roscosmos, as a federal executive body, could not take any part in the launch, because it was a "direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1874, supported by Russia," the spokesman explained. On March 16, the DPRK announced that it would launch in mid- April a working satellite, Kwangmyongsong-3, to mark the 100th birth anniversary of its late leader Kim Il Sung. The satellite would be launched from a station in north Pyongyang Province between April 12 and 16, the DPRK's official news agency KCNA reported. Earlier, the DPRK's Korean Committee for Space Technology said it would invite experienced foreign experts on space science and technology as well as journalists to visit the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, the General Satellite Control and Command Center and other places to observe the launch. Russia has said it is seriously concerned about the DPRK's satellite launch plan, calling on Pyongyang not to go ahead with it.