Rocket rethink: Moscow advises Pyongyang against launch

http://rt.com/politics/moscow-north-korea-russia-missile-pyongyang-116/


Russia has urged North Korea to revise its decision on a satellite rocket launch scheduled for later in the month, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement says.
While acknowledging the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s right to “peaceful space exploration,” Moscow has called on the DPRK to “revise its decision on the rocket launch," according to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry on Monday.
The Foreign Ministry said Russia “regretted” the announcement by the North Korean Committee for Space Technology that it would launch a satellite rocket in the period December 10-22, the statement says.
"We have drawn the attention of the North Korean side many times to the impermissibility of ignoring UN Security Council Resolution 1874, which unequivocally prohibits the DPRK from launching rockets employing ballistic technology," the ministry said on its webpage.
As a member of the United Nations, North Korea is obliged the fulfill UN Security Council resolutions that are mandatory for all member-nations of the international body, the Foreign Ministry stressed.
The Russian statement took a diplomatic approach to Pyongyang’s determination to test rockets, holding out promises of “international cooperation” in the event that North Korea canceled rocket launches.
"Russia, together with its partners in the six-party talks, is ready to continue efforts to settle problems of the Korean peninsula,” the statement read. Talks with the international community could “result in the cancellation of sanction restrictions with regard to Pyongyang,” as well as “the establishment of conditions for the full-scale involvement of DPRK in international cooperation in various spheres.”
North Korea could benefit from “peaceful space exploration and nuclear power engineering cooperation” if it agrees to cooperate with the international community, the ministry said.