Publish Date: 24 February 2009 - 18:22

North Korea announced on Tuesday that it is preparing to launch a satellite from its northeastern coast.

"Outer space is an asset common to mankind and its use for peaceful purposes has become a global trend," a country’s spokesman for Korean Committee of Space Technology said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

 

The planned launch is of an "experimental communications satellite" called Kwangmyongsong-2, the spokesman said, by means of a delivery rocket called Unha-2.

 

He said preparations are "now making brisk headway" at Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province, in the country's northeast.

 

 

PA/PA

END

MNA