NKorea considers delaying rocket launch
SEOUL — North Korea may postpone the controversial launch of a long-range rocket that had been slated for liftoff as early as this week, state media said yesterday, as international pressure on Pyongyang to cancel the provocative move intensified.
Scientists have been pushing forward with final preparations for the launch from a west coast site, slated to take place as early as Monday, but are considering “readjusting” the timing, an unidentified spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology told North Korea’s state- run Korean Central News Agency.
It was unclear whether diplomatic intervention or technical glitches were behind the delay. A brief KCNA dispatch said scientists and technicians were discussing whether to set new launch dates but did not elaborate.
Word of a possible delay comes just days after satellite photos indicated that snow may have slowed launch preparations, and as officials in Washington, Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow and elsewhere urged North Korea to cancel a liftoff widely seen as a violation of bans against missile activity.
Commercial satellite imagery taken by GeoEye on Dec. 4 and shared Friday with The Associated Press by the 38 North and North Korea Tech websites showed the Sohae site northwest of Pyongyang covered with snow. The road from the main assembly building to the launch pad showed no fresh tracks, indicating that the snowfall may have stalled the preparations.
However, analysts believed rocket preparations would have been completed on time for liftoff as early as Monday.
In Seoul, officials at the Defense Ministry, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Foreign Ministry said Sunday they were looking into what might be behind the possible delay.
North Korea announced earlier this month that it would launch a three- stage rocket mounted with a satellite from its Sohae station southeast of Sinuiju sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. Pyongyang calls it a peaceful bid to send an observational satellite into space, its second attempt this year.