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A vehicle carrying a PAC-3 missile interceptor arrives at a port on Ishigaki Island, Okinawa prefecture, southwestern Japan Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. North Korea has moved up the window of its planned long-range rocket launch to Feb. 7-14, South Korea's Defense Ministry said Saturday. The launch, which the North says is an effort to send a satellite into orbit, would be in defiance of repeated warnings by outside governments who suspect it is a banned test of ballistic missile technology.(Photo: Koji Harada, AP)
North Korea<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has moved up the window of its planned long-range rocket launch to as early as Sunday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in defiance of outside governments who suspect<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a banned test of ballistic missile technology,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>South Korea's Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>North, which says it will attempt<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to place a satellite in orbit,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>informed the International Maritime<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Organization that it would move up the launch window from the original Feb. 8-25 period to Feb. 7-14, Japan's Kyodo News Service reports.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>No reason was given Saturday for the change of dates.
While the North claims such efforts are a benign attempt to develop the capability for putting satellites into space, outside governments say this is a cover for testing a ballistic missile.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>As such, it would<span style="color: Red;">*</span>constitute yet another major violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from carrying out any nuclear or ballistic missile tests.
Such<span style="color: Red;">*</span>notifications by countries<span style="color: Red;">*</span>are intended to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>alert<span style="color: Red;">*</span>maritime traffic that might be planning to be in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>area.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>North Korea, however, did not inform international organizations of any other changes in its plan, and the rocket's expected flight path remains the same, said South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun.
Recent commercial satellite imagery analyzed by U.S. researchers showed tanker trucks at the launch pad at North Korea's Sohae facility, which likely indicates the filling of fuel and oxidizer tanks in preparation for the launch, the Associated Press reports. It is not yet clear if a rocket is on the launch pad yet, according to the North Korea-focused 38 North website.
An official from the Korea Meteorological Administration, South Korea's weather agency, said that rain or snow was expected in the North Korean region where the launch pad is located on Monday, Thursday and next Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules, the AP reports.
The revised plans come only weeks after the North<span style="color: Red;">*</span>conducted its fourth nuclear test.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Outside <span style="color: Red;">*</span>governments worry that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>nuclear tests and long-range<span style="color: Red;">*</span>missile launches signal<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that the North is getting closer to <span style="color: Red;">*</span>creating a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on an intercontinental missile capable of reaching targets as far as the U.S. West Coast.
North Korea previously tested nuclear explosive devices in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and claimed it successfully delivered a satellite into orbit in December 2012, the last time it launched a long-range rocket.
South Korean analysts have<span style="color: Red;">*</span>speculated that the secretive North Korean leadership, which is very sensitive to symbolic gestures, might be trying to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>pull off the launch ahead of Feb. 16, the birthday of late dictator Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un.
The South Korean defense ministry said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>South Korea and the U.S., which stations more than 28,000 troops in the South as a buttress against any North Korean aggression, are deploying key military assets, including the South's Aegis-equipped destroyers and radar spy planes, to track the North Korean rocket after its launch.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The Seoul government said it will stay on full alert for the possible launch as early as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sunday,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>South Korea's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Yonhap news agency reports.
Pyongyang's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>announcement<span style="color: Red;">*</span>also prompted<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Japan's Foreign Ministry to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>set up an emergency response desk to monitor and prepare for the launch. Japan has already deployed Patriot missile batteries in Tokyo and on the southern island of Okinawa to shoot down any debris from the rocket that might threaten to fall on Japanese territory.
In this Oct. 10, 2015, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gestures as he watches a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Wong Maye-E, AP)
While the United States and South Korea might respond to any launch with a call for tighter sanctions in North Korea,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>China, North Korea's only major ally, is unlikely to support stronger punishment<span style="color: Red;">*</span>over concerns it could<span style="color: Red;">*</span>provoked<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a regime collapse<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and send<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a stream of refugees across the border, analysts say. China is also responsible for about 70 percent of the North's trade volume, according to South Korean estimates.
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