NORTH KOREA AIMING ROCKET LAUNCH TO THE SOUTH PACIFIC

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A US official says a North Korean rocket due to be launched next month may affect an area between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is reported to have asked the three countries to condemn the launch.

North Korea says the rocket will take a new southern trajectory instead of a previous route east over Japan.

Japan is readying anti-missile defences around the southern islands of Okinawa, which could be under the flight path.

North Korea says the rocket is intended to put a satellite in space, but the US and others say the launch is a cover for a long-range missile test - a potential delivery system for nuclear weapons.

The launch is expected to dominate a security summit on Monday in the South Korean capital Seoul, which will be attended by US President Barack Obama.

Australia's Sydney Morning Herald said Mr Campbell had briefed Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Friday on the rocket's southward trajectory.

"If the missile test proceeds as North Korea has indicated, our judgment is that it will impact in an area roughly between Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines," the paper quoted Mr Campbell as saying.

"We have never seen this trajectory before. We have weighed into each of these countries and asked them to make clear that such a test is provocative and this plan should be discontinued."

 

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Satellite images show Pyongyang preparing rocket
March 30, 2012 - 1:17PM



New satellite imagery appears to show preparations beginning for a long-range rocket launch in North Korea despite international objections.

The image from a privately operated satellite was taken on Wednesday of the Tongchang-ri site where North Korea says it plans to launch the rocket between April 12 and 16.

An analysis conducted for the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies says the image shows trucks and fuel tanks outside two large buildings that would be used to store propellant for the rocket. It also shows work under way at a gantry tower next to a mobile launch pad, with a crane being used to load equipment. The rocket itself is not yet visible.
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“The image shows not only that the launch is going ahead but the preparations seem to be on schedule for the planned launch dates,” said Joel Wit, visiting fellow at the institute and editor of its website on North Korea, 38 North.

North Korea says the launch is to fire an observation satellite into orbit and mark the centennial of the birth of the nation's founder, Kim Il-sung. The US says it is a cover to test long-range missile technology and violates UN Security Council resolutions.

The US President, Barack Obama, has appealed to the North Korean leadership to abandon the rocket plan but was promptly rebuffed by the North.

If the launch does go ahead, it will terminate a February 29 accord between the longtime adversaries, under which the North agreed to nuclear concessions and a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests in exchange for food aid.

The US says the plans to provide the food to the impoverished nation are already on hold.

On Sunday, South Korean defence officials said the main body of the three-stage rocket was transported to a building in Tongchang-ri, which lies on North Korea's north-western coast, about 56 kilometres from the northern border with China.

The institute's analysis suggests that the separate stages of the rocket will be moved from this building and assembled at the launch site which lies about 1000 metres away. It predicted the first stage of the rocket will probably be moved to the launch pad in the next couple of days.

The image appears to show various other activities at the site, including a crew cutting brush away from the launch pad, to prevent it catching fire when the Unha-3 rocket takes off and burning its way to the adjacent buildings used to store the propellant.

Analysts describe Tongchang-ri as a more sophisticated launch site than used for previous North Korean rocket launches, allowing a southward flight path that would avoid sending it over other countries.

However, US assistant secretary of defence for Asia-Pacific security affairs, Peter Lavoy, said on that the US lacks confidence about the rocket's stability and that debris from it could cause casualties. He said the rocket is probably intended to land somewhere close to the Philippines or maybe Indonesia, but South Korea and the Japanese island of Okinawa could also be affected.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino, a close US ally, said yesterday he is gravely concerned that debris may fall on Philippine territory. He called the planned launch a “needless provocation” and urged North Korea to abandon it.

Associated Press

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