BEIJING — Two weeks after agreeing to freeze its weapons programs in return for food aid, North Korea announced Friday it is preparing to launch a satellite in mid-April to mark the 100th anniversary of founder Kim Il-Sung’s birth.
Although North Korea insisted its intentions are peaceful, the timing of the launch could scuttle the newly inked deal with Washington. The technology employed in shooting a satellite into orbit is essentially the same as a long-range missile test. Two previous tests, in 1998 and 2009, also were described by Pyongyang as satellite launches.
In Washington, the State Department called the announcement of the launch a “highly provocative” move that would jeopardize plans to deliver food aid to starving North Koreans, even though the United States has insisted the assistance did not depend on the deal.
“Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with North Korea’s recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
The food-aid deal, which was announced Feb. 29, called for North Korea to suspend its nuclear and long-range missile programs. It raised hopes that the new, youthful leader, Kim Jong-Un, is keener to normalize relations with the United States than his father, Kim Jong-Il, who died in December.
“It is very difficult to pinpoint where the North Koreans stand right now,” said Kim Chul-Woo, an analyst with the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.
Nuland suggested the unexpected announcement could be a sign of divisions within the North Korean government.
“This obviously raises a question about what is going on in Pyongyang,” she said.
