Philippine Defense dept. to monitor North Korea rocket launch

[Kang 22]

MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Defense (DND) on Wednesday said it would strictly monitor North Korea's rocket launch which is expected to be done on April 12 to 16.

"What can we do is monitor (the event) and we'll ask appropriate agencies with capabilities to know more about this," said DND Spokesman Peter Paul Galvez.

He issued this statement following reports that rocket launch will dump debris off Luzon as it enters its flight path.

"We will try to know more about this, the details of the flight path, so we can appropriately warn people of the possible areas which will be affected by the debris," Galvez stressed.

But the DND spokesman is hopeful that nothing untoward will happen as debris from space often disintegrate upon reentry from the Earth's atmosphere.

"It disintegrates basically but it's good enough for all of us to ensure the safety of our people so we try to know specifically what areas (that) might be affected with this missile launch," he said.

The United States, Japan and South Korea see North Korea’s plan as a thinly veiled long-range missile test, which would breach a United Nation ban and violate last month’s denuclearization deal with Washington.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said such criticism was a “sinister provocation by hostile forces.”

It said that North Korean has a right to peaceful development in space, adding its government had notified international aviation and maritime bodies of the rocket’s flight path.

Next month’s rocket launch is timed to coincide with mass celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation’s founding president, Kim Il-sung.

[slim 1,530]

They're probably going to space to find food for all those starving children.