hankyoreh

Wu Dawei

On Feb. 2, North Korea notified the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) about plans to launch a satellite, media reports say.

On the same afternoon, Wu Dawei, China’s Special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs and that country’s chief envoy to the six-party talks, also paid a visit to North Korea.

The ITU announced that North Korea had notified it that it would be launching a terrestrial observation satellite, Japanese wire service Kyodo News reported.

According to the wire service, a source at the IMO also said that North Korea had notified the organization of plans to launch a satellite called Gwangmyeongseong between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25.

In order to launch a satellite, North Korea is required to provide advance notification to these bodies, and it appears to have initiated those procedures.

North Korea also provided advance notification to those international bodies, which are in charge of safe navigation and telecommunications, when it launched Gwangmyeongseong 3 in Dec. 2012.

Considering that North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on Jan. 6, these actions suggest that North Korea is getting ready to launch a long-range rocket.

The Japanese media reported on Jan. 27 that indications of launch preparations had been detected at North Korea’s launch facility in Dongchang Village in North Pyongan Province and that the North might soon launch a long-range missile.

If North Korea does launch a long-range rocket, it is likely to further strain the already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula. This would also increase calls from the international community for tougher sanctions on the North.

China is taking action to prevent North Korea from launching a long-range rocket.

“A delegation led by Wu Dawei…arrived in Pyongyang on Feb. 2,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s official news service, reported late in the afternoon of the same day.

This is the first time that a high-ranking Chinese official has visited North Korea since it carried out its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6. The visit was presumably intended to exchange views with North Korea before the UN Security Council adopts a new sanctions resolution against it, and to keep the North from moving to launch a long-range missile.

On this visit, Wu is expected to meet with officials including Ri Yong-ho, who is North Korea’s vice minister of foreign affairs and the North’s envoy to the six-party talks.

“When Wu meets with North Korean officials, he’s likely to ask North Korea to refrain from launching a long-range missile and to explain that, if the North goes ahead with the launch, it will limit China’s options in the international community and make it harder for China to support North Korea,” said a diplomatic source in Beijing.

On Jan. 14, Wu met with Hwang Joon-gook, Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs for South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; on Jan. 21, he met with Kimihiro Ishikane, director of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Japan’s senior representative to the six-party talks.

On Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, Wu had a conference in Beijing with Sung Kim, who is Special Representative for North Korea policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Korea and Japan at the US Department of State, as well as the US’s special envoy to the six-party talks. During the conference, Wu and Kim shared their opinions about sanctions against North Korea and ways to respond to North Korea’s nuclear program.

China has been opposed to the draft of the sanctions resolution drawn up by the US, which contains tougher measures such as suspending exports of petroleum to North Korea, stopping imports of coal from the North, and blocking North Korean civilian aircraft and vessels from passing through Chinese airspace and territorial waters.

During a conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry last month, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the goal should not be sanctions but rather relaxing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent, and Seong Yeon-cheol, Beijing correspondent