By Kim Yoon-mi and news reports
North Korea is likely to launch its “satellite” rocket between Thursday and Monday, despite repeated warnings by the U.S. and its allies.
Paek Chang-ho, head of the satellite control center of the Korean Committee of Space Technology, told reporters in Pyongyang that the North started fueling the rocket on Wednesday. He did not make it clear when the fueling would be complete but analysts said it could take eight hours.
Unlike the Musudan-ri launching facility in the northeast of the peninsula, the Dongchang-ri facility ― where satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 awaits launch on a Unha-3 rocket ― stores fuel, making fueling faster than the previous two launches in 2006 and 2009.
Pyongyang claims the launch is for “peaceful purposes” as part of its space development programs.
However, outsiders see it as a pretext to test an intercontinental missile which could threaten not only Asia but U.S. territory.
If the weather is clear, the North could launch the rocket as early as Thursday. Analysts also said the launch could take place on Saturday, just a day before the centenary of late founder Kim Il-sung’s birth, to maximize propaganda value.
South Korean intelligence officials said the North could conduct a third nuclear test after the launch, as it did after the first missile launch in 2006 and second in 2009.
News reports in Washington said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that the U.S. would seek appropriate actions in response to the launch.
“Let me make absolutely clear that any launch by North Korea would be a serious, clear violation of their obligations under already existing U.N. Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874,” Clinton told reporters after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba.
“We are consulting closely in capitals and at the United Nations in New York, and we will be pursuing appropriate action.”
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Cho Byung-jae said if North Korea goes ahead with its planned rocket launch, the U.N. Security Council is to immediately convene and discuss the issue.
(yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)