N. Korea calls South 'traitor' for backing U.N. sanctions against rocket launch

SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday blasted Seoul as a "traitor" for backing U.N. sanctions against its imminent rocket launch, reasserting its right to launch a satellite.

Intelligence sources said North Korea could be technically ready for the launch
by this weekend, having loaded its rocket onto a launch pad on its east coast.
But Seoul officials believe the North will wait until the period it specified to
U.N. agencies -- some time between April 4 and 8.
South Korea, the United States and Japan believe the satellite launch is likely a
cover for a long-range missile test as the technologies involved are virtually
the same. The three countries have warned the rocket launch would be a breach of
a U.N. resolution banning the North from ballistic missile activity.
"The Lee Myung-bak group of traitors is showing themselves in their true color as
confrontational maniacs who spread malicious insults at whatever their brethren
does," the Minju Joson, a newspaper of the North's Cabinet, said in a commentary.
Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesperson Lee Jong-joo on Thursday reaffirmed
South Korea's opposition to the launch, calling the move a "serious threat and
provocation" to the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian region.
The foreign ministry held a task force meeting led by chief nuclear envoy Wi
Sung-lac, who is scheduled to meet his U.S. and Japanese counterparts in
Washington on Friday to coordinate their responses.
"It is a traitor's behavior that the Lee group clamors for 'resolute measures
through international coordination,'" the North Korean newspaper said.
The paper emphasized Pyongyang's observation of international procedures for
shooting a satellite, such as joining space treaties and notifying the
International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime
Organization of its expected launch time, coordinates and danger areas. The
notice said the satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 will be launched by the carrier rocket
Unha-2 from the country's east coast, and that the rocket's booster would fall
into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, while the second-stage
booster will fall into the Pacific.
"These actions demonstrate that there would be no problem with our republic's
satellite launch," the paper said.
North Korea has said the launch is part of its peaceful space development program
and warned any foreign attempt to shoot it down will lead to a war on the Korean
Peninsula.
Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry warned earlier this week that six-party nuclear
talks would break down if the U.N. Security Council resorts to sanctions over the
satellite launch.
If the launch goes through, North Korea will own a satellite before South Korea
puts its KSLV-1 satellite into space in late July.
"It's rather obvious our republic will enhance its national power, and public
opinion in the South will further move in favor of the North. This should be a
serious challenge to the Lee Myung-bak group that is on the rampage to suppress
its brethren through the power of foreign forces," the paper said.
A senior official in the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae was skeptical about
whether the U.N. could impose sanctions on North Korea and whether the U.S. and
Japan would try to intercept its rocket. The official, requesting anonymity, also
expected the launch would likely take place even though North Korea's technology
might be far from sophisticated.
North Korea launched what it called "Kwangmyongsong-1" in 1998, which the U.S.
later concluded was a "failed" satellite launch. In 2006, the North fired a
long-range Taepodong-2 missile, but it failed less than a minute into flight.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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