SEOUL, South Korea – Reclusive North Korea pressed ahead Friday with final preparations to blast a multistage rocket over Japan as world leaders scrambled to forge a united stance on how to punish Pyongyang for the launch.
Saturday is the start of a five-day window during which the North says it will send a communications satellite into orbit, and officials have said they think the North won't wait. The U.S., South Korea and Japan think the communist country is really testing long-range missile technology — a move they have warned would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution banning the North from ballistic activity.
The launch has sparked international alarm because the North has admitted it has nuclear weapons and has repeatedly broken promises to shelve its nuclear program or halt rocket tests.
A successful launch would mean the renegade state has a long-range missile capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction, said Kim Sung-han, an international affairs professor at Seoul's Korea University, although it is unclear if the North has been able to shrink its warheads enough to fit on a rocket.
It would also help North Korea's exports of missiles or missile parts, Kim said — a key consideration for one of the world's poorest countries.
The North already has medium-range missiles that can reach Japan, over which the North has said the missile will travel. Tokyo is bracing for the possibility that debris could fall around its northern coast.
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