North Korea said on Monday it would extend the period for launching a rocket carrying a scientific satellite to Dec. 29 due to "technical deficiency" in a rocket engine module.
The North's space agency said at the weekend that it was considering a delay in the rocket launch, which had been scheduled to take place between Dec. 10 and 22.
However, North Korea is moving a new
rocket component to its missile
test site to replace a faulty stage that has delayed its planned
launch of a long range rocket and is likely to still go ahead with a launch in
December, a South Korean
newspaper reported on Monday.
North Korea's state media announced at
the weekend that the launch of the rocket carrying what it called a scientific satellite
may have to be delayed without disclosing the reasons.
A trailer carrying a new third stage
rocket was seen by satellite on Saturday being moved from a missile plant in
Pyongyang to the Tongchang-ri missile launch site, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted a
government source as saying.
"From the reading of satellite images,
it's definite the North delayed the missile launch because of problems with the
third stage rocket," the source was quoted as saying.
"The possibility the North will go
ahead with the launch before December 22 as announced is high."
Officials at South Korea's spy agency
and military declined to confirm the report, citing their policy of not
commenting on intelligence related matters.
It is impossible to verify events inside the secretive North which is one of
the world's most closed states that tightly controls news and information about
its military and its leadership.
The North is believed to be developing an
intercontinental missile with a range of more than 6,700 km which would have
the capacity to hit the continental United States, a move that would
dramatically increase its diplomatic clout.
North Korea has said it would launch a rocket to put a working satellite
into space between December 10 and 22 from its test ground located in the
western region near its border with China.
Analysts said the timing was picked to mark the first anniversary of the
death of the North's former leader Kim Jong-il, although it also coincides with
elections in South Korea and Japan.
The planned launch has been condemned by South Korea, Japan and the United
States, all of which call it a disguised test of a long-range missile being
developed to carry nuclear arsenal.
An earlier launch in April failed minutes after blast off which the North
admitted in a rare admission of an embarrassing failure.
North Korea is banned from carrying out
any missile or nuclear related activities by U.N. resolutions imposed in 2006
and 2009 after conducting nuclear and missile tests.
Pyongyang says it has a right to develop
a space program.
REUTERS