The article said that this year is the last year of the five year plan for scientific and technological development in the DPRK and the launch of the second version of satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 is directly linked with this.

The recent satellite launch was a desire at the behest of leader Kim Jong Il and a peaceful work in line with the plan for scientific and technological development for the economic construction and the improvement of the standard of people's living, it noted.

The general goal of the five year plan for scientific and technological development which started from 2008 is to develop science and technology for solving all the problems arising in improving the standard of people's living. The DPRK, at the same time, set the long-term goal of putting itself on the position of a scientific and technological power by 2022, it said.

The launch of the scientific and technological satellite equipped with various kinds of observation apparatuses is part of this plan, it stressed.

For the scientists and technicians of the DPRK, to carry out this plan precisely meant realizing the last instructions of Kim Jong Il, it said.

The DPRK's development of outer space will hold a big portion in the future, too, it said, adding the successful satellite launch will be handed down through generations as a historic event.