spacetoday.net: North Korea presses ahead with satellite launch plans

Posted: Tue, Mar 20, 2012, 7:09 AM ET (1109 GMT)
North Korea is proceeding with plans to make a third attempt to launch a satellite despite concerns from other nations that the launch is instead a long-range missile test. The North Korean government announced Friday it would launch the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite in the middle of April, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of that nation's founder, Kim Il-sung. The satellite is said to be an Earth observation satellite, but few details about the satellite have been disclosed by North Korea. Many nations, including the US, Russia, Japan, and South Korea, have objected to the planned launch, arguing that it is really a test of a long-range missile. North Korea attempted similar satellite. North Korea claimed to launch satellites into orbit in 1998 and 2009, but no objects achieved orbit.