China to ease tension over DPRK's satellite launch

China is continuing efforts to ease tension in the Korean Peninsula over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's planned satellite launch next month, which has sparked widespread concern about the country's long-range missile technology.

China has conveyed its concerns over the launch and maintained close communication with the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia, Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Luo Zhaohui said on Tuesday.

Pyongyang announced on Friday that its Unha-3 rocket carrying the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite will blast off from its satellite launching station in western DPRK between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the DPRK's founder and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.

According to Japan News Network, Tokyo has received a detailed launch schedule from the International Maritime Organization.

The satellites will pass Okinawa prefecture of Japan, which has ordered its Ground Self Defense Force to prepare for a counterattack, the network reported on Monday.

China has expressed its stance and concerns to all sides, and urged them to keep calm, Luo said, adding that the peace and stability of the DPRK is in all sides' interests.

Luo also called on the US and the DPRK to honor the agreement they reached on Feb 29, calling it the "dawn of peace" on the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang agreed to suspend long-range missile tests in return for 240,000 tons of nutritional aid from the US - a deal that Pyongyang insists remains in effect.

"The satellite launch is one thing and the DPRK-US agreement is another," DPRK deputy foreign minister Ri Yong-ho said late on Monday after meeting with Wu Dawei, China's special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs, in Beijing.

"If they apply double standards toward us or try to improperly violate our rights, our only option is to respond against it. I hope that such a thing would not happen, and we will make efforts until the end not to see that kind of confrontation," he said.

The DPRK will implement its deal with the US in full, Ri said.

"In order to implement the agreement, we've sent a letter of invitation to the International Atomic Energy Agency to send inspectors to our country."

The IAEA said on Monday that it has received an invitation from the DPRK for a visit.

"We will discuss with the DPRK and other parties concerned details of the visit," IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said. "Nothing has been decided yet."

The visit would be the first of its kind since the DPRK suspended its cooperation with the IAEA and withdrew from the Six-Party Talks on nuclear disarmament in 2009.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the DPRK's invitation "positive", saying: "Obviously there's benefit for any access that the IAEA can get."

Washington didn't ignore the positive signals from Pyongyang, which showed the possibility of easing tension between the two countries, said Wang Fan, an expert on international security at China Foreign Affairs University.

By inviting IAEA inspectors into the country, Pyongyang hopes to win trust from the international community and ease the concerns over its satellite launch plan, said Wang Junsheng, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Chinese meditation efforts will ease the tension between the DPRK and the US, but it will still be difficult for Pyongyang to suspend the launch, he said.