Russian President Dmitry Medvedev strongly denounced North Korea's planned rocket launch Monday, saying Pyongyang should first care about feeding its people before launching a missile, according to a South Korean official.
Medvedev made the remarks during summit talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
"The satellite launch that North Korea said it is going to push ahead with, which is a missile launch, is an undesirable plan that clearly violates a U.N. Security Council resolution and brings instability to the Korean Peninsula," Medvedev said during the meeting, according to South Korean presidential official Kim Tae-hyo.
Medvedev also said Moscow sent a grave message to Pyongyang, according to Kim.
"Ahead of a missile launch, the North Korean regime should first feed its own people. North Korea cannot rely on international assistance forever. North Korea should change" if it wants to rebuild its economy, Kim quoted Medvedev as saying.
North Korea has long relied on international handouts to feed its 24 million population since natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy in the mid-1990s.
Lee told Medvedev the international community should help North Korea open up and cooperate with the international community so the impoverished nation can develop itself in a similar manner to China and Vietnam.
Lee also said the people in North Korea are unlikely to welcome Pyongyang's missile launch plan because it is a waste of the country's scarce resources and will make their lives worse, according to Kim.
North Korea announced earlier this month that it will launch what it says is a satellite-carrying rocket next month, a claim widely seen as a pretext that Pyongyang has long used to disguise ballistic missile tests banned under a U.N. Security Council resolution.
Military officials in Seoul said Sunday that North Korea is believed to have moved a long-range rocket to the launch site in Dongchang-ri in the country's northwest for final preparations for the liftoff set for between April 12 and 16.
The summit took place on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit set for Monday and Tuesday, a gathering of more than 50 world leaders for discussions mainly on keeping nuclear material away from the hands of terrorist groups.
Lee and Medvedev also expressed satisfaction that relations between the two countries have moved forward in a substantial manner, including the breaking of US$20 billion in bilateral trade volume for the first time in 2011, the presidential office said in a statement. (Yonhap News)
