North Korea says it will launch a long-range rocket next month in order put a satellite into orbit.

North Korea says it will launch a long-range rocket next month in order put a satellite into orbit.

Blast-off will be between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding leader  of the communist state,Kim Il-Sung, the country’s official news agency and state television said.

A Unha-3 rocket will launch a home-built polar-orbiting earth observation satellite known as Kwangmyongsong-3, a spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology said in a statement.

The move is said to bring condemnation by the United Nations Security Council, which did such a position when Pyongyang launch on April 5, 2009, its last long-range rocket of a satellite.

Pyongyang quit six-party nuclear disarmament talks in protest at the censure and conducted a second atomic weapons test the following month.
Friday's announcement came just 16 days after the North's new leaders agreed to suspend long-range missile tests as part of a deal under which it would receive 240,000 tons of US food aid.

That deal, under which Pyongyang also promised to freeze its uranium enrichment plant, had raised hopes of eased tensions under the rule of the new leader, Kim Jong un, who took the office on December 16 after his father Kim Jong Il died.

The North maintains that its satellite launches are for peaceful purposes while the United States and other nations claim they are disguised missile tests.