North Korea Launches Rocket Despite Protests

North Korea has launched a rocket, despite international appeals not to go ahead.

Officials from Japan, South Korea and the US confirmed lift-off at 0230 GMT. The rocket appeared to have passed over Japan to the Pacific, Tokyo said.

North Korea says it is sending a satellite into orbit, but its neighbours suspect the launch could be a cover for a long-range missile test.

The US called it “provocative”, while Japan said it was “regrettable”.

The South Korean government said it would “deal firmly and resolutely” with Pyongyang.

The rocket blasted off just before midday on Sunday from the Musudan-ri launch pad in the north-east of North Korea.

“The projectile launched from North Korea today appears to have passed over towards the Pacific,” the Japanese prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The US State Department and South Korea’s presidential office also confirmed the launch.

Japan said it did not try to intercept the rocket, as it had indicated that it would if its territory was threatened.

North Korea’s neighbours say the launch violates United Nations resolutions.

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Report: North Korea Fueling Long Range Rocket

North Korea has begun fueling a long-range rocket for an impending launch, a news report said, as President Barack Obama warned the liftoff would be a “provocative act” that would generate a U.N. Security Council response.

North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit on a multistage rocket sometime from Saturday to Wednesday. The U.S., South Korea and Japan think the reclusive country is using the launch to test long-range missile technology, and they’ve warned the move would violate a Security Council resolution banning it from ballistic activity.

CNN television reported on its Web site — seen Thursday in Seoul — that Pyongyang has begun the fueling. The report, citing an unidentified senior U.S. military official, said the move indicates final preparations for the launch. Experts say the missile can be fired about three to four days after fueling begins.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it was aware of the report but declined to comment.

At a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in London, Obama denounced the planned launch as “a provocative act” and a breach of the U.N. resolution, a senior administration official told a background briefing, according to the White House Web site.

“He also made clear that we will respond in the event of a launch. The U.N. Security Council is the natural venue for a response since this would be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” the official said.

Obama also discussed North Korea with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the White House said.

The issue is expected to be a key topic at Obama’s summit with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday. Lee has sought to drum up support from world leaders in London for punishing its neighbor if the launch goes forward.

via Report: North Korea fuels its long-range rocket for launch | World | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

Spy Agencies Believe North Korea Has Nuke Warheads

Intelligence agencies have information that North Korea has assembled several nuclear warheads for its medium-range Rodong missiles capable of targeting Japan, an analyst said Tuesday.

Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said the agencies believe that probably five to eight warheads have been assembled.

“Intelligence agencies believe the North Koreans have assembled nuclear warheads for Rodong missiles, which are stored at underground facilities near the Rodong missile bases,” Pinkston told AFP.

“It might be right, it might be wrong — but if others believe it is true, it has implications for the psychological aspects of deterrence,” he said, describing the assessment as “quite significant.”

Pinkston declined to identify his sources and said they had not shared their own sources with him.

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North Korea Moves Rocket To Launchpad

North Korea is loading a Taepodong rocket in anticipation of the launch of a communications satellite next month, US officials said.

Regional powers, however, worry that the claim is a cover for the launch of a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska. In 1998 North Korea faked a satellite launch to cloak a missile development test.

The US National Intelligence Director, Dennis Blair, said this month that all the indications were that Pyongyang would, in fact, launch a satellite. South Korea, America and Japan have urged North Korea to refrain from going ahead with the launch, expected to take place between April 4 and 8, calling it a violation of a UN Security Council resolution barring the country from ballistic activity.

In 2006 North Korea launched a Taepodong2 long-range missile that blew up less than a minute into fl

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North Korea Holds US Reporters

North Korean soldiers have detained at least one Korean-American journalist near the North’s border with China, South Korean media say.

YTN TV channel quotes a South Korean official as saying two reporters were held after being asked to stop filming. Other reports say one female journalist was arrested. It is not yet clear who the journalists were working for. The reports come amid heightened tension between the US and North Korea.

The North has angered the US by planning a missile launch for April as part of its space communications programme. The US believes the launch is intended to test a rocket that could potentially carry a warhead as far as US territory.

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North Korea Warns Intercepting Satellite Will Prompt Retaliation

UPDATE: North Korea put its troops on alert and cut the last hot line to Seoul on Monday as the American and South Korean militaries began joint maneuvers. The communist regime warned that even the slightest provocation could trigger war.

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North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it.

“We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army as saying.

If countries such as the United States, Japan or South Korea try to intercept the launch, the North Korean military will carry out “a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds” of the countries, it said.

“Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war,” it added.

North Korea earlier announced it is preparing to put a communications satellite into space, but outside observers suspect it may in fact be a test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have said that even if Pyongyang calls the launch a missile test, it would violate existing U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The same North Korean statement said the country’s military will cut off communications with its South Korean counterparts during the U.S.- South Korean exercises for the duration of the exercises beginning Monday.

A separate, more rare statement by the KPA’s Supreme Command was quoted by the KCNA as saying that its soldiers are under orders to be “fully combat-ready” during U.S.-South Korean military exercises beginning Monday.

The North’s armed forces have been ordered to “deal merciless retaliatory blows” should there be any intrusion “into the sky and land and seas of the DPRK even an inch.”

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North Korea May Be Ready To Test-fire Missile

North Korea could be ready to test-fire a missile within days as satellite imagery has shown increased activity at a missile site over the past 48 hours, a defense weekly said.

A significant increase in launch preparations has occurred at the Musudan-ni missile site on the communist country’s northeastern coast, said Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., a senior analyst at Jane’s Information Group who specializes in North Korean defense and intelligence matters.

“The latest satellite images … indicate that North Korea is preparing to launch either a prototype Taepodong 2 intermediate range ballistic missile or a Paektusan 2 space launch vehicle within a matter of days,” Jane’s Defence Weekly said in a report issued Friday in London.

The report comes amid growing international pressure on the North to drop its apparent plans to fire a long-range missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory. Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have repeatedly warned Pyongyang against firing a missile, saying the move would trigger international sanctions.

Bermudez said satellite images show the activation of launch equipment and radars, and the arrival of numerous trucks and support vehicles. Support facilities for the engine test stand were undergoing expansion, the report said.

North Korea launched a failed long-range Taepodong 2 missile in 2006. That test alarmed the world and gave new energy to the stop-and-start diplomacy over North Korea’s nuclear program. The North is believed to possess up to a dozen nuclear warheads.

Pyongyang also conducted a surprise launch of a Taepodong 1 missile over Japan in 1998.

via Report: NKorea may be ready to test-fire missile.

US Warns – North Korea Test-fire of Missile Would Be Provocative

The U.S. warned North Korea that test-firing a missile would be viewed as “provocative” after reports the communist state was preparing a rocket launch days after declaring the Korean peninsula was on the brink of war.

“North Korea’s missile activities and, you know, its missile programs are of concern to the region,” State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington yesterday. “A ballistic missile launch by North Korea would be unhelpful and, frankly, provocative.”

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies believe North Korea may be preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, Yonhap News said yesterday, citing an unidentified South Korean security official.

Kim Jong Il’s regime announced Jan. 30 it was scrapping all military and political agreements with South Korea, accusing the government in Seoul of pursuing confrontational policies that were pushing the nations toward conflict. Analysts said North Korea’s rhetoric may have been aimed at drawing the attention of the new Obama administration in Washington.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006, has rejected international demands that inspectors be allowed to remove samples from its Yongbyon reactor, the source of the regime’s weapons-grade plutonium. The refusal has stalled six- nation disarmament talks that also involve the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Taepodong-2 Missile

U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies recently observed a train carrying a long cylinder-shaped object believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile, Seoul-based Yonhap reported. The launch preparations are likely to be completed in a month or two, the news agency cited the intelligence official as saying.

via Bloomberg.com: Japan.