By Lee Tae-hoon
North Korea has brought the main body of a long-range rocket to a launch pad in the northwestern part of the country ahead of its planned launch next month, defense official said Sunday.
“South Korean and U.S. military authorities are aware that North Korea has moved the main body of a long-range rocket to a launch site in Dongchang-ri and has been assembling it in preparation for a launch,” a spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said asking for anonymity.
The spokesman noted that the delivery of the main body of the long-range rocket from the Sanum-dong missile development center in Pyongyang to the launch facility in Dongchang-ri, Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province took place several days earlier than military authorities here predicted.
“We planned to give a press briefing about the development of North Korea’s rocket preparation on Wednesday as the transportation of the rocket’s main body was expected to occur about two weeks prior to launch,” he said.
The North has said it would launch the rocket to put an observation satellite into orbit between April 12 and 16 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founding father Kim Il-sung, which falls on April 15.
The MND official noted that the move may reflect Pyongyang’s jitters over its possible failure to put the new rocket into orbit. Two previous attempts in July 2006 and in April 2009 failed. A rocket exploded right after lift-off in July 2006. In what Pyongyang claimed to be a satellite launch in April 2009 also ended in failure after the rocket fell into the Pacific Ocean, some 3,200 kilometers from the launch site.
Seoul and Washington called on the North to refrain from the planned rocket launch, seeing it as a disguised ballistic missile test.
The North's move comes as U.S. President Barack Obama and scores of other global leaders are flocking to Seoul to attend the second Nuclear Security Summit.
Washington has said it will not provide food aid to Pyongyang if the North proceeds with the rocket launch, although the U.S. agreed in February to ship 240,000 tons of food to the impoverished North in return for a moratorium on missile and nuclear tests and freeze of uranium enrichment.
North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions imposed in 2009 after nuclear and long-range rocket tests.