Worries over likely North Korea rocket test

Japan to ‘shoot down anything that threatens territory’

Speculation mounted on Friday that North Korea is preparing a rocket or long-range missile launch to follow its recent nuclear test, with Japan reportedly ordering its military to shoot down any projectile that threatened its territory.

With existing UN Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from the use of ballistic missile technology, any launch would be a further slap in the face of the international community which is struggling to find a united response to the January 6 nuclear test.

Following a Japanese report that cited government sources as saying a rocket launch could come as early as next week, two US defence officials confirmed ongoing activity at the North’s Sohae satellite complex.

“The indications are that they are preparing for some kind of launch,” one US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Could be for a satellite or a space vehicle — there are a lot of guesses. North Korea does this periodically — they move things back and forth,” the official said.

The US regularly monitors North Korea from space, while Japan began satellite monitoring of the country in 2003.

North Korea successfully put a satellite into orbit with its Unha-3 carrier in December 2012.

Although Pyongyang insisted it was a purely scientific operation, that launch was condemned by the international community as a disguised ballistic missile test and resulted in a tightening of UN sanctions.

“Our concern is that when they do a space launch, it happens to be the same components that can be used in an ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile),” a second US official said.

CNN, citing an unnamed US official, reported on Thursday that North Korea might have attempted to test components of a hydrogen bomb on January 6

North Korea tested a nuclear device on January 6 that it said was a hydrogen bomb.

US state department spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters earlier on Thursday that the United States still believes that Pyongyang did not test a hydrogen bomb.

Facing a US-led push for tough United Nations sanctions over its latest nuclear test, North Korea appeared to be looking for Security Council allies on Friday, sending top diplomats to Moscow and possibly Beijing.

China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, have helped temper the international reaction to North Korean provocations in the past.

Although the patience of both has been tested to its limits by North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions, neither wants to see the chaotic collapse of a nuclear-armed state on its border.

The North’s official KCNA news agency said a delegation led by vice-foreign minister Pak Myong-Guk had departed for Russia on Friday.

No details were given of the itinerary, but the visit comes as the US is seeking to build consensus on the need for harsh sanctions after the North carried out its fourth nuclear test earlier in January.