N Korea announces provocative missile launch North Korea says it will launch a long-range rocket next month in a move that could scupper a food aid deal struck with Washington only two weeks ago. Under an agreement intended to forge a rapprochement with North Korea, the US is due to send Pyongyang food in return for a suspension of ballistic tests. In a provocative announcement, North Korea said on Friday it would blast an "earth observation" satellite into orbit between April 12 and April 16 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, founder of the nation, on April 15. North Korea's announcement sparked immediate anger from South Korea, which argues any long-range launches are illegal under UN Security Council resolutions and that nuclear-armed Pyongyang only uses satellite launches as a smokescreen for improving its ballistic firepower. "This is a serious provocation that threatens peace and security on the Korean peninsula and across north-east Asia," Seoul's foreign ministry said. At the end of last month Pyongyang agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, long-range missile tests and warhead detonations in return for 240,000 tonnes of food aid. Pyongyang insisted its launch was "scientific" and "peaceful." A spokesman for North Korea's committee for space technology, said: "A safe flight orbit has been chosen so that carrier rocket debris to be generated during the flight would not have any impact on neighbouring countries." US and South Korean authorities say the launch showed ballistic advances but failed to place the satellite in orbit. North Korean state propaganda has portrayed Kim Jong-eun, the new leader, as defender of the satellite programme. A recent television documentary said he stopped the country's enemies shooting down the Kwangmyongsong in 2009. Kim Young-hyun, professor at Dongguk university, said: "Since he is in his initial year in power, North Korea is consolidating Kim Jong-eun's power for the centenary of Kim Il-sung." Typically, North Korea can make powerful propaganda mileage out of the country's enemies trying to prevent it from developing a space programme and can blame the US for keeping the country hungry. North Korea needs an event to mark the 2012 centenary when it says the country will pass through the "gateway of a mighty and prosperous nation." In 2009, it followed the missile launch with a nuclear warhead test.