Post by Papa C. on Feb 24, 2009 10:20:47 GMT
North Korea prepares for rocket launch
North Korea has antagonised its neighbours and the US by announcing it is about to launch a satellite on board one of its rockets.
Analysts say they are actually test-firing a long-range missile designed to strike US territory.
The announcement follows weeks of angry rhetoric from Pyongyang aimed at Seoul and warnings that the Korean peninsula was on the verge of war.
Analysts said Pyongyang is using brinkmanship to put pressure on the new US government and its main allies in the region, South Korea and Japan, to reverse tough policies against the North.
During a trip to Asia last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned North Korea against any provocative moves.
"The preparations for launching an experimental communications satellite ... are now making brisk headway," North Korea's news agency said.
"When this satellite launch proves successful, the nation's space science and technology will make another giant stride forward in building an economic power."
Officials in Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing said they were closely watching developments in the North while security experts are divided on whether the launch could take place in days or weeks.
North Korea stunned the region when it fired a missile over Japan in 1998, saying it had launched a satellite.
If the long-range rocket flies successfully, Pyongyang would have a missile with a maximum range of 4,200 miles, designed to eventually carry a nuclear warhead that could hit US territory in Alaska, analysts said.
North Korea has tested the long-range rocket, better known as the Taepodong-2, only once before in 2006 when it flew for a few seconds and then exploded.
Proliferation experts have said the North, which also tested a nuclear device in 2006, does not have the technology to make a nuclear weapon small enough to mount as a warhead.
"It does not matter if it is a satellite or a ballistic missile because they use similar technology. The Defence Ministry will take it as a threat to our security," South Korea's defence minister Lee Sang-hee said.
