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China has no deployments against DPRK rocket launch

By Li Xiaokun and Cui Xiaohuo (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-03-30 15:55

The Chinese armed forces have made no deployments against a planned rocket launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) this week, a Chinese air force general said Monday.

Lieutenant General Liu Chengjun, president of the Beijing-based Academy of Military Science, made the remarks on the sidelines of a high-level Sino-ASEAN defense talk in Beijing.

Related readings:  Defense chief: US not to shoot down missile launched by DPRK  Japan braces itself for DPRK's planned rocket launch  Japan ready to destroy DPRK rocket debris  DPRK to close two air routes for rocket launch  Tokyo to ready defense against DPRK rocket

He also called for restraint and advised against provocative remarks or actions by all parties concerned. "China has focused on how to defuse tensions and make reconciliation," said Liu. "China believes that peace is golden."

Liu said China, as well as his academy, is closely monitoring the development in the Korean Peninsula. 

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview aired on Sunday that the United States would not shoot down the missile that DPRK was expected to launch.

Gates told "Fox News Sunday" that the launch was likely to happen soon but the US military was not prepared to "do anything about it." 

The DPRK has announced that it would launch a communications satellite between April 4-8. But the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) suspect it might be a long-range ballistic Taepodong-2 missile.

Japan has deployed two destroyers to the Sea of Japan to intercept debris falling towards its territory in case the DPRK fails in the rocket launch.