South Korea has concluded that North Korea's satellite launch slated for between April 12-16 constitutes a direct violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC) 1874 banning ballistic missile technology, a government source said Sunday.

   The resolution unanimously adopted by the UNSC on June 12, 2009 in the aftermath of North Korea's underground nuclear test conducted on May 25, 2009 imposes further economic and commercial sanctions on the North and encourages U.N. member states to search North Korean cargo. Specifically, the resolution, also approved by Russia and China, bans "any launch using ballistic missile technology."

   Pyongyang announced Friday that Unha-3 rocket carrying earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 will blast off from its satellite launching station in North Pyongan Province between April

12 and 16, while noting that the launch of a satellite built by indigenous technology is designed "to mark the 100th birth anniversary of late President Kim Il-sung," the country's founder and the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.

   On Saturday, the North said it will invite a group of experienced foreign experts on space science and technology and journalists to visit the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, the General Satellite Control and Command Center and other places and observe the launch of Kwangmyongsong-3.

   According to the source, North Korea notified the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization on March 16 that Unha-3 rocket's first stage will fall in a zone about 140 kilometers west of the Byeonsan Peninsula in Buan, about 200 km south of Seoul and the second stage is expected to fall 190 km east of the Philippines.

   The UNSC regulates North Korea's long-range missile technology under its Resolution 1718 adopted in October 2006, but the North claimed after its launch of Kwangmyongsong-2 in April 2009 that the launch only involved a rocket capable of carrying satellite into orbit. Therefore, UNSC Resolution 1874 clearly stipulates that even a satellite launch by North Korea is illegal, the government source in Seoul explained.

   Against such a backdrop, Kwangmyongsong-3 is expected to again trigger a dispute over whether the satellite launch is a disguised ballistic missile test.

   In a Sunday dispatch from Pyongyang, the North's Korean Central News Agency said that the satellite launch is a matter pertaining to the sovereignty of a sovereign state, attacking South Korea, the U.S. and Japan for defining the satellite launch as a missile launch. "This is, in a nutshell, a base move to deny the DPRK's right to use space for peaceful purposes and encroach upon its sovereignty as it is typical of the hostile policy toward it." The DPRK is an abbreviation for North Korea's official name.

(Yonhap News)