North Korea is preparing to launch long-range rockets - Houston Chronicle

Seoul (AP) - the North Korea prepares to fire a long-range rocket this month in a provocative gesture should raise issues of a confrontation on its nuclear programmes and missiles.

Announcement of the North Saturday that it would launch the rocket between 10 and 22 December was made as president Barack Obama prepares for his second term and the South Korea holds presidential elections on December 19.

It would be the second attempt to launch the Korea of the North under leader Kim Jong-Un, which took power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il there is almost a year. Some analysts have expressed scepticism that the North Korea has corrected what caused the embarrassing ignition of its latest rocket eight months ago. The launch received widespread international condemnation of the country.

A spokesman of the Korean Committee of space technology to North Korea, however, said scientific "analyzed the errors" in the April launch failed and improved the accuracy of its Unha rocket and satellite Kwangmyongsong, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The release, the launch was an application of the late leader Kim Jong Il. He died December 17, 2011, and the North Koreans are supposed to mark the date this year with fanfare. The space agency, said the rocket should be mounted with a maintained and polar orbit Earth observation satellite its right to develop a space program Pacific.

Washington considers North Korea rocket launches to be veiled cover for testing technology for the long-range missiles designed to establish in the United States, and these tests are prohibited by the United Nations.

"A North Korean launch"satellite"would be an extremely provocative act," said the spokesman for the Department of State Victoria Nuland in Washington, D.C. "any North Korean launch using ballistic missile technology is a direct violation of the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council."

In 2009, North Korea directed rocket and nuclear testing in the months of Obama enter in function.

North Korea was able to short and medium-range missiles, but the fire at long range in 1998, 2006, 2009 and April of this year ended with a failure. North Korea is not known to have managed to assemble an atomic bomb on a missile, but is expected to have enough used as a weapon of plutonium at least five or six bombs, according to US experts. In 2010, he revealed a program of uranium enrichment which would provide a second source of material for nuclear weapons.

Negotiations of the six nations on the nuclear programme of the Korea of the North in return for dismantling aid collapsed in early 2009.

There was some scepticism about the question of whether North Korea will succeed.

"Getting ready for a launch in less than a year after a failure calls into question whether the North could have analyzed and fixed everything that was wrong", David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote on the Organization's Web site this week.

In Seoul, the South Korean authorities have accused North Korea of trying to influence the presidential election with what they consider provocations intended to exert pressure on voters and the United States as the North is seeking concessions. Conservative Park Geun-hye, the daughter of the late president Park Chung-hee, is faced with Moon Jae-in liberal in the South Korean presidential election. Polls show the candidates in a tight race.

North Korea "works hard to influence the upcoming election. They have a person selected, "South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in an interview with a small group of foreign journalists in the Presidential Blue House." "Even if they test fire a missile, it will not have a big impact on the election," Lee said, speaking through an interpreter.

Lee gave the interview Thursday, but his Office under embargo the release of his comments until Sunday.

The Korea of the North as part of its young leader is committed to strengthening its nuclear arsenal unless Washington waste that the North calls a "hostile" policy North Korea says it built the bombs to defend itself against what it considers a US nuclear threat in the region.

This year is the centenary of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong-Un. According to North Korean propaganda, 2012 aims to put the North on the way to "a strong, prosperous and great nation".

"North Korea seems to be under pressure to redeem his failed to launch April preceding the year of the end of the"strong, prosperous and great nation',"said Koh Yu-hwan, an expert on North Korea at Dongguk University in Seoul.

He added that a successful rocket launch would increase the bargaining power of the North Korea of South Korea and in the United States "because it means that the country is closer to develop missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads."

Before his last two rocket launches, North Korea notified the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization on his intentions to run. Natasha IMO spokesman Brown said that as of Friday the Organization had not been advised by North Korea.

North Saturday announcement comes two days after South Korea canceled what would have been the launch of its first satellite from its own territory. Scientists in Seoul cited technical difficulties. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea said that the planned launch of the North is "a serious provocation and a challenge with the head to the international community."

Missile and nuclear programs of North Korea will be a challenge for Obama in his second term and for the incoming South Korean leader. Last attempt by Washington to negotiate a freeze of the nuclear programme of the North and a moratorium on testing in exchange for food aid collapsed with the launch of April.

In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he would coordinate with the United States, South Korea, China and the Russia in urging the North to refrain from the launch of the rocket.

Minister of defence of the Japan also ordered units of missile to intercept the North Korean rocket if it or its fragments are threatening to hit the Japan.

Kyodo News Agency said that Japan postponed also the high-level talks with the Korea of the North scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned North Korea launch plan, indicating a failure of the Korea of the North to cancel the ignition will lead to a further response from the international community.

The Korean peninsula remains in a State of war because the 1950-53 Korea war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Washington stations close to 30,000 troops in South Korea as a buttress against any North Korean aggression. Tens of thousands more are in nearby Japan.

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Related to writers Jean h. Lee, Hyung-jin Kim and Sam Kim in Seoul Press, Jill Lawless in London, Thomas Strong in Washington, D.C. and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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