Official: Rocket ready for launch

Associated Press

PYONGYANG, North Korea

North Korean space officials said Tuesday that the rocket built to carry a satellite into space was ready for liftoff this week as the nation’s leadership makes a series of appointments before a major political gathering.

Workers Party delegates are scheduled to convene Wednesday for the fourth conference of North Korea’s ruling political party, where new leader Kim Jong Un is expected to inherit titles once held by his father, the late Kim Jong Il.

North Korea’s national flag and the red hammer-and-sickle flag of the Workers Party fluttered across chilly Pyongyang on Tuesday as delegates toured historic sites, including the birthplace of late President Kim Il Sung. North Korea celebrates the 100th anniversary of his birth Sunday, a major milestone in the country he founded.

New posters in the capital welcomed the delegates from provincial towns across the country. Workers scrambling to spruce up the city were painting railings a military green and crouching along roads to plant flowers.

Space officials, meanwhile, told foreign journalists at a news conference that the launch of the three-stage rocket is on target to take place between Thursday and Monday as part of the centennial birthday commemorations for Kim Il Sung.

“All the assembly and preparations of the satellite launch are done,” including fueling of the rocket, Ryu Kum Chol, deputy director of the Space Development Department of the Korean Committee for Space Technology, said at the briefing at the Yanggakdo Hotel.

The Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite, equipped with a camera designed to capture images of North Korea’s terrain and send back data about weather conditions, was being mounted on the rocket Tuesday.

The United States, Britain, Japan and others have urged North Korea to cancel the launch, saying it would be considered a violation of U.N. resolutions prohibiting the country from nuclear and ballistic missile activity.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the launch would be a direct threat to regional security and said the U.S. would pursue “appropriate action” at the U.N. Security Council if North Korea goes ahead with it.

Clinton made the comments Tuesday after meeting Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, who said Japan would cooperate with Washington and the international community in framing its response.

In New York, Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who is serving as the Security Council president this month, said a North Korean launch of a ballistic missile would be a “blatant violation” of two council resolutions.

“There is no disagreement among members of the council that this is a provocative act, and an act that the North Koreans should refrain from undertaking,” Rice said.

Experts say the Unha-3 carrier is the same type of rocket that would be used to launch a long-range missile aimed at the U.S. and other targets.