The reports that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was going to launch long-distance missile were "rumors" and without "proper understanding of the fact", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Monday.

It was intended to block "DPRK's building of military capability for self-defence" and "scientific researches for peaceful purpose" by spreading such "rumor", the KCNA said.

"Space development is the independent right of the DPRK and the requirement of the developing reality," it added. "One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK," it said.

It noted that the DPRK didn't want to draw attention from anyone and wanted "nobody to interfere or meddle in the issue of the Korean Peninsula."

The DPRK test-fired a long-range rocket carrying a satellite in August 1998. The United States alleged it was a ballistic missile named TAEPODONG-1.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2009)