US: If N. Korea launches rocket, food aid is done

Associated Press

PYONGYANG, N. Korea

North Korea plans to blast a satellite into space next month to mark the centenary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il Sung, which the U.S. quickly called a “deal-breaker” for a new agreement where the U.S. would exchange food aid for nuclear concessions.

After Friday’s surprise announcement, the United States warned it would not send food aid to North Korea if it goes ahead with the long-range rocket launch, and U.N. Security Council members said it may violate sanctions.

The North agreed to a moratorium on long-range launches as part of the food deal with Washington but argues that satellite launches are part of a peaceful space program that is exempt from international disarmament obligations. The U.S., South Korea and other critics say the rocket technology overlaps with belligerent uses and condemn the satellite program as a disguised test of military missiles in defiance of a U.N. ban.

The launch is to take place three years after a similar launch in April 2009 drew widespread censure.

State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. now had “grave concerns” about the Feb. 29 agreement under which the North agreed with the U.S. to nuclear concessions and a moratorium on long-range missile tests in return for 240,000 tons of food aid.

Nuland said a rocket launch would call into question North Korea’s good faith. She said that during the negotiations for the U.S.-North Korea agreement, “we made clear unequivocally that we considered that any satellite launch would be a deal-breaker.”

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, the current Security Council president, said the rocket launch would violate U.N. sanctions.