Japan Press Weekly

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2012 March 7 - 13 TOP3 [NORTH KOREA]

JCP Urges DPRK to Cancel “Rocket” Launch Plan - the DPRK should comply with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and go back to the Six-Party Talks joint statement

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo published a following statement on March 21.

Since the DPRK declared its plan to launch an “application satellite” between April 12 and 16, there has been strong criticism and concern in Asia and throughout the world. The Japanese Communist Party strongly urges the DPRK government to cancel its plans for the “rocket” launch.

It would be, among other things, a violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874, passed unanimously on June 12, 2009. In this resolution, the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the nuclear test conducted by the DPRK on May 25, 2009, demanding “that the DPRK not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology.” The intention of this resolution was to stop any ballistic missile launch or even a satellite launch using ballistic technology. This was a grave decision by the international community based on the fact that the DPRK had violated previous UNSC resolutions by brazenly conducting the nuclear test for the second time.

In this context, the justification provided by the DPRK for its currently planned launch, that “the peaceful development and use of space is a universally recognized legitimate right of a sovereign state” or a “satellite launch is a matter pertaining to the sovereignty of a sovereign state,” does not hold water.

On the occasion of the death of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il last December, I offered “my condolences on the death of the head of the country,” further expressing our hope that the succeeding leadership of the country will return to the 2002 Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration and the
2005 Six-Party Talks joint statement “in order to pursue the path of a responsible member of the international community.”

We believe this is also the hope of the other members of the Six-party talks. The United States and the DPRK agreed this February on the freeze of the latter's nuclear tests, missile launch and uranium enrichment activities. I took note of this development as a positive step.

If the DPRK brazenly launches its “rocket,” it would undermine international efforts to realize a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, also creating a serious reverse current in the peace and stability of East Asia.
This course of events can never be beneficial to the DPRK itself.

Again, the JCP strongly urges the new leadership of the DPRK to abide by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, return to the Six-Party Talks joint statement, and continue to act as a responsible member of the international community.