Japanese PM tells N Korea to cancel rocket launch

‘Move violates UN resolutions’:

S Korea: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda called Tuesday for North Korea to cancel its planned rocket launch, telling world leaders at a nuclear security summit the move violated UN resolutions.

“North Korea's launch of a missile under the guise of 'a satellite'... is against the non-proliferation efforts of the international community and would be a violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” Noda said, according to an English version of his speech given to reporters.

“As such, the international community strongly urges North Korea to exercise restraint and cancel the launch.” Noda's comments to leaders or top officials from 53 nations at the summit in South Korea came after Japan announced Monday it would deploy surface-to-air missiles in central Tokyo in readiness to shoot down the rocket if needed.

The North said this month it would fire the rocket to put a satellite into orbit between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding president Kim Il-Sung.

The nuclear-armed state insists it has a right to launch a satellite for peaceful purposes.

The United States, Japan, South Korea and other nations say the exercise is a disguised missile test, which UN resolutions have banned. The tsunami-triggered meltdown at a Japanese nuclear power plant last year offered important lessons in protecting such facilities from terrorism, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.

Noda said that people in charge of securing atomic energy facilities around the world must not be lulled into a “myth of safety”, whether in regards to a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

He said the disaster at the plant at Fukushima had shown the difficulties in preparing for the worst-case scenario, when officials could not comprehend the scale of the threat to the nuclear power plant. AFP