This DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite image taken on March 29, 2009 shows the North Korea rocket launch facility in Musudan Ri, North Korea.

North Korea’s planned rocket launch in the next week would violate UN resolutions even if it tried to put a satellite into space, officials in South Korea and Japan said on Wednesday.

The missile North Korea could launch as soon as this weekend appears to have a bulb-shaped tip that gives credence to Pyongyang’s claim it plans to put a satellite in space, US defense officials said on Tuesday.

The United States, Japan and South Korea see the launch as a disguised military test because the rocket being used is a long-range missile called the Taepodong-2, which is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.

“Whether it is a satellite or a missile, it is still a violation of U.N. sanctions,” a South Korea Foreign Ministry official said.

“We consider this would be a breach of the resolution and thus of international law,” said Takeshi Akamatsu, assistant press secretary at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a commercial satellite image of the Musudan-ri missile test site showed a Taepodong-2 missile with a bulb-shaped payload cover, consistent with a satellite payload, rather than a warhead.

An image was posted on Sunday on the website of the Institute for Science and International Security, or ISIS, a Washington-based group devoted to informing the public on security issues including nuclear weapons.

North Korea was hit with UN sanctions barring it from ballistic missile testing and halting its trade in weapons of mass destruction after it tried unsuccessfully to test the Taepodong-2 in July 2006 and conducted its first and only nuclear test a few months later.

About a half dozen missile-interceptor ships with sophisticated radar from Japan, the United States and South Korea are expected to be in waters along the rocket’s flight path but there are no plans to shoot it down unless it threatens their respective territories.

Do not meddle

North Korea, which said any attempt to shoot down the rocket it intends to launch between April 4-8 would be an act of war, issued a new threat on Wednesday.

“(Our army) will relentlessly shoot down U.S. reconnaissance aircraft if they intrude into our territory and meddle with our peaceful satellite launch preparation,” it said in a state radio broadcast monitored in Seoul.

Analysts said they expect China, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and the closest thing Pyongyang can claim as a major ally, to block any new sanctions or allow for the tighter enforcement of existing ones.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the launch would deal a blow to often-stalled international talks to end Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

The launch is certain to feature on the sidelines of the G20 summit this week in London when U.S. President Barack Obama meets global leaders, including President Hu Jintao of China.

Further stoking tensions, North Korea said on Tuesday it would put on trial two US journalists arrested this month on its border with China.

The North’s east coast launch site is watched by US spy satellites, which are looking for signs the North has started fuelling the rocket, beginning a process experts said could lead to a launch in as early as three days.

The weather in the area for Saturday, the first planned launch day is expected to be cloudy and there have been no signs yet that fuelling has started fuelling.

Source: Reuters