Despite protests and threats of war from the world’s imperialist powers, the government of North Korea has announced that they will be launching a rocket into space to place a satellite in orbit next month. The move which has been taken as an act of aggression by the West, comes only just weeks after it agreed to make concession regarding its nuclear program in exchange for food aid. Food which is being denied to the country through a decades long embargo by the US and its puppet allies. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea maintains that the launch is intended to send an experimental satellite into orbit for peaceful purposes. All of which is legal and does not violate any disarmament agreements.

The Korean Central News Agency has publicly broadcasted their intentions:

“The DPRK will strictly abide by relevant international regulations and usage concerning the launch of scientific and technological satellites for peaceful purposes and ensure maximum transparency, thereby contributing to promoting international trust and cooperation in the field of space scientific researches and satellite launches.”

Despite the statement of peaceful intentions from the government and space agency, the US and South Korea have claimed that the launching of this satellite is a cover for testing military missile technology in violation of a U.N. ban. Daniel Pinkston a so-called expert on North Korea’s weapons programs at the International Crisis Group, said the launch was intended to “underline” the regime’s claimed commitment to provoke new tensions to help their government. He also suggested that the move could risk the food aid that has been promised to the country.

Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura went before the media on Friday and announced that they are setting up a crisis management task force under the command of the Prime Minister’s office to monitor the situation in co-operation with the US and South Korea. He also accused the North of deliberately sabotaging dialogue and urged them to cancel the satellite launch.

North Korea maintains that the new launch is to place a fully functional polar-orbiting earth observation satellite between April 12th and 16th. The previous two satellites that were launched were only experimental ones. The new Kwangmyongsong-3 will be launched from a Unha-3 rocket to orbit the Earth. A flight path has been chosen to avoid debris falling into other countries. They also reiterated that it was for peaceful scientific purposes and as a demonstration of their domestic development of technology without outside assistance.

The DPRK has every right to launch such devices to develop their own technology. Space does not belong to any nation, it is a frontier to be explored by everyone, knowledge is not private property. These attacks by the West and the South against North Korea’s launch is a continuation of the suppression they carry out against the country. They are trying to prevent the technological as well as economic development of the sovereign nation, so that they may be subject to suppression by hostile nations. North Korea has every right to self determination and that includes the peaceful development of space technology.

Sources:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWMEFONLg_5YxBNnhQM6mICmgsrg?docId=f5e6c28640b640b9bb68fb3ae8283853
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/03/15/north-korea-announces-plan-to-launch-satellite/