China raises concern with North Korea over rocket launch

China's envoy on North Korea has expressed concern about the North's planned rocket launch, a Foreign Ministry official said on Tuesday, in China's latest bid to coax the North to abandon the launch that could stymie a US aid offer.
On Monday, the Chinese envoy, Wu Dawei, met the North's vice foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, in Beijing, the second meeting between China and North Korea in five days over the North's planned rocket launch. "The Chinese government at the earliest moment expressed our concerns and worries," Luo Zhaohui, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Asian Affairs told a news briefing, referring to the meeting between Wu and Ri.
North Korea said last Friday it would launch a satellite to mark the centenary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il-sung, next month. Foreign officials have in the past said such launches were really long-range missile tests. North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned under UN resolutions. The United States has said a launch carrying a satellite could violate the North's agreement last month to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches, and scuttle US plans to resume food aid.
Luo said China called on "all parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, avoid an escalation of the situation ... and play constructive roles to ease the situation in the peninsula". Luo also urged the United States and North Korea to value a recent improvement in relations, which this month brought talks in Beijing on a resumption of US food aid.
"We hope North Korea and the United States continue dialogue and maintain contact, and cherish these hard-earned achievements," Luo said. "This has important significance in alleviating the situation on the peninsula and improving US-North Korea relations." The isolated North Korean government, however, showed no signs of abandoning the launch.
"The launch of the working satellite is an issue fundamentally different from that of a long-range missile," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said late on Monday. "More than 100 space vehicles are put into the orbit around the earth by carrier rockets in a year on an average world-wide. How can the puppet and other hostile forces explain this fact?", it said, referring to the United States and its allies.
North Korea's Ri, speaking to media in Beijing, repeated the North's stance that a satellite launch was the North's sovereign right to space development, adding it intended to move ahead with the United States on the aid agreement.