N. Korea set for 'satellite' launch
But there's suspicion that talk of a space shot conceals a test of a long-range missile.
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea declared yesterday it was making "brisk headway" in plans to send a satellite into orbit as part of its space program, a launch regional powers fear is a cover-up for testing a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Alaska and the western United States.
Analysts called Pyongyang's announcement yet another bid for President Obama's attention as he met in Washington with Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan, a key ally in the regional push to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that North Korea should focus on its commitments to international negotiators working to rid the North of its nuclear weapons.
The Pentagon's weapons tester said yesterday he did not have "high confidence" that the Boeing Co.-managed U.S. missile defense would be effective against even a rudimentary North Korean missile.
Testing against the possible trajectories and altitudes of a North Korean missile has been limited and has not generated enough data to run the thousands of computer simulations needed to predict performance, Charles McQueary wrote in his annual report to Congress, Bloomberg News reported.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D., Mich.), who heads a panel that approves funding for missile defense, said the assessment was "troubling."
North Korea's declaration came just days after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a trip to Asia, urged Pyongyang to put an end to "provocative actions."
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution prohibiting Pyongyang from engaging in any ballistic activity after a missile launch in 2006. North Korea could face additional sanctions if it violates the resolution.
A statement yesterday by state-run Korean Central News Agency said "preparations for launching experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong 2 by means of delivery rocket Unha 2 are now making brisk headway" at a site in Hwadae County in the northeast.
The North test-fired a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, a launch the regime also said was a satellite.
Hwadae was the site for the 2006 test launch of North Korea's longest-range missile, the Taepodong 2, which has the potential to reach Alaska. Reports suggest the missile being readied for launch could be an advanced version of the Taepodong 2 with even greater range.
It probably won't be clear if the latest launch is a satellite or a missile test until footage can be analyzed after the event; the trajectory of a missile is markedly different from that of a satellite.
The KCNA report did not say when the launch would take place. Intelligence officials reported a flurry of activity at the site but no sign a rocket had been mounted on the launchpad, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.
The announcement comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak has pledged to end a decade of unconditional handouts for the nuclear-armed neighbor; the North has ramped up its anti-Lee rhetoric, saying the Koreas are headed for a military clash.
Relations between the two had improved as previous South Korean leaders sought to coax the impoverished North to the negotiating table with warm words and unconditional aid.
But that did not stop the North from launching missiles in 1998 and 2006, then conducting a nuclear test later that year. The first test missile went all the way to Japan, but the launch in 2006 ended in the ocean soon after liftoff.