By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade called on North Korea Thursday to stop its planned rocket launch.
Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters that if the North launches it, the government will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) after consultation with other countries.
Resolution 1718, adopted unanimously in October 2006, imposed a series of arms and economic sanctions on North Korea three months after the state's nuclear test. It also banned the sale of luxury goods to the North.
The secretive state, on the other hand, denounced the South for supporting U.N. sanctions against the launch, calling it a ``traitor.''
Moon said, ``Whether it's a satellite or a missile, the launch would apparently violate UNSC Resolution 1718 because the two are using the same launch pad.''
South Korea's nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac will leave for Washington Friday for talks with Stephen Bosworth, special envoy on North Korea, and chief nuclear negotiator Sung Kim.
They will discuss ways to resume denuclearization talks and cope with the rocket launch, ministry officials said.
Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae agreed that the planned rocket launch will be a ``serious challenge and provocation'' to security in Northeast Asia as well as on the Korean Peninsula.
``We call on the North to halt the alleged rocket launch,'' he told reporters, claiming it would violate the resolution.
The communist state reported to international organizations early this month that it would send a ``satellite'' into orbit between April 4 and 8 as part of a national space program.
Yet the outside world believes that it will be a test launch of the Taepodong-2 missile, theoretically capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii.
According to diplomatic sources, the Stalinist North apparently put the missile on a launch pad at its east coast Musudan-ri missile base.
NBC television reported the intelligence, citing anonymous U.S. officials, that the missile was visible but the top was covered with a shroud supported by a crane.