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Pentagon says DPRK rocket launch 'destabilizing'

China.org.cn, March 17, 2012

• U.S. Defense Department on Friday said the April launch of a long-range rocket announced by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would violate U.N. resolutions and represent a destabilizing influence in the region.

  Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. side "consider it destabilizing behavior," urging the DPRK leadership to "reconsider this decision and to conform to their obligations under those sanctions."

  The rocket would carry a DPRK-made Kwangmyongsong-3 polar- orbiting earth observation satellite to mark the 100th birthday of its late leader Kim Il Sung.

  "If, in fact, they do what they are claiming they will do, it is a very clear violation of two United Nations Security Council resolutions and is in violation of their obligations to the international community," Kirby said.

  "We continue to operate every day with our South Korean counterparts and we hold firmly to our alliance obligations and to security on the Korean peninsula," said Kirby.

  He added that the Defense Department is "very comfortable with the full range of military capabilities we have at our disposal in the Asia Pacific region and in and around the Korean peninsula."

  Also on Friday, U.S. State Department said that it is "very hard" for the United States to go forward with its planned food assistance to the DPRK after the latter announced its satellite launch plan.

  The DPRK's satellite launch plan "calls into question" whether Pyongyang did so in good faith when it reached an agreement in February with the U.S. on resuming the food aid, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

  "Were we to have the launch, it would create obviously tensions and that would make the implementation of any kind of nutritional agreement quite difficult," Nuland said, hinting that DPRK's latest move was "an abrogation of that agreement."

  Earlier in the day, the DPRK announced it will launch in April an "earth observation" satellite, or the Kwangmyongsong-3, using a long-range rocket to mark the 100th birthday of its late leader Kim Il-Sung.

  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed DPRK's launch plan as "highly provocative," warning that such a launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with DPRK's recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches.

  Clinton urged the DPRK to "adhere to its international obligations, including all relevant UN Security Council resolutions," adding that Washington is consulting closely with its international partners on the next steps.

  Under the agreement reached in Beijing in late February, the U. S. agreed to provide 240,000 tons of food aid to the DPRK in exchange for Pyongyang's promise to impose a moratorium on nuclear tests and missile launches and allow international nuclear inspectors to return to the country.

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