calendar>>May 4. 2009 Juche 98

DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Blasts U.S. Misinterpretation of Satellite Launch as Ballistic Missile Launch

Pyongyang, May 4 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Monday as regards the U.S. persistent insistence that the DPRK launched a ballistic missile, not a satellite, and its moves to make it an established fact:

Kwangmyongsong-2, satellite the DPRK legitimately launched on April 5 after going through necessary procedures according to international law, was accurately put into orbit 9 minutes and 2 seconds after its launch and it is regularly going round the earth.

The DPRK's satellite launch was aimed at independent scientific researches and development for the peaceful use of outer space.

It is not important to get somebody's recognition. To acquire necessary capability is enough for us.

Even the U.S. scientific research institutions and military research institutes as well as military information institutions confirmed the successful launch of the satellite.

It is only the U.S. administration and unsavory forces subservient to it that insist the DPRK's satellite launch was a ballistic missile launch.

The UNSC pressurized by the high-handed practices of the U.S. so ambiguously interpreted the DPRK's satellite launch as just a "launch" in the "presidential statement" that it could not clarify what it actually criticized.

The political aim sought by the U.S. through the above-said insistence is to secure a pretext for applying sanctions against the DPRK at any cost and physically suffocate its national defence industry.

With nothing can the U.S. justify such illegal provocation as forcing the UNSC to table the issue of the DPRK's launch of satellite for peaceful purposes and issue "a presidential statement" with no binding force in a bid to apply sanctions against it.

All the facts go to clearly prove that although the present U.S. administration plays tricks, talking about "change" and "multi-lateral cooperation diplomacy" it is nothing different from the preceding administration which frantically worked to stifle by force other countries which incurred its displeasure.

It is the lesson taught by the reality of the international relations today that strength alone can defend one's sovereignty.

The DPRK is firmly convinced that it was entirely just when it opted for bolstering the nuclear deterrent to protect the sovereignty and the right to existence of the country and the nation.