ROK aborts rocket launch minutes before liftoff

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-19 17:53

Half-mast flags including a Republic of Korea (ROK) national flag (C) hang near the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), the ROK's first space rocket, at its launch pad of the Naro Space Centre in Goheung, about 485 km (301 miles) south of Seoul, August 18, 2009, as a sign of mourning for deceased former President Kim Dae-jung. [Agencies]

SEOUL, Republic of Korea: Space officials aborted the Republic of Korea's (ROK) first rocket launch just minutes before liftoff Wednesday.

The scheduled launch, just months after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was widely criticized for firing its own rocket in defiance of the United Nations, had threatened to raise Pyongyang's ire. The DPRK said it would keep a close eye on the international response to Seoul's rocket launch.

The launch had been set for 5 pm (0800 GMT/4 am EDT) from the Naro Space Center off the southern coast but was aborted less than eight minutes before liftoff, Science Ministry spokesman Kim Bo-hyun said. The reason was not immediately provided.

The two-stage rocket would be the ROK's first launch from its own territory. Since 1992, it has launched 11 satellites, all on foreign-made rockets from overseas sites. The ROK wants to become a regional space power alongside China, Japan and India.

In April, the DPRK beat the ROK in the space game by launching a multistage rocket it said was mounted with a satellite. The US, Japan and other nations condemned the firing as a test of ballistic missile technology since the same rocket can be mounted with nuclear armaments.

The UN Security Council slapped Pyongyang with sanctions, calling the launch a violation of resolutions banning it from conducting missile-related activity.

Relations between the DPRK and the ROK - which remain technically at war - have been tense since President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in February 2008, abandoning late ex-President Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" of encouraging reconciliation with aid.

But there have been signs of warming ties in the past week, with the DPRK releasing a ROK citizen from its custody and announcing it will allow some joint projects to resume.

And in a promising sign, the DPRK's leader Kim Jong-il sent condolences to the family of Kim Dae-jung, who died Tuesday at age 85 after a lifetime of fighting for democracy and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula.

The DPRK's officials also conveyed their wish to send a delegation to pay their respects to Kim, lawmaker Park Jie-won, a former Kim Dae-jung aide, said Wednesday.