hankyoreh

By Park Byung-soo and Kim Gyu-won, staff writers

North Korea’s rocket have been moved to their launch pad, effectively beginning the countdown until the rocket is launched.

“Given that North Korea has installed a three-stage rocket on the launch pad, we believe fuelling will soon begin,” said one South Korean government official. “Fuelling began three to four days before the launch in April 2009, but it may be quicker this time due to technological advances.” The Dongchang-ri launch site that is being used this time, unlike 2009’s Musudan-ri, is believed to be equipped with an underground automatic fuelling system, making it hard to confirm by satellite photograph whether fuelling has started.

North Korea has invited foreign reporters and experts to observe the launch this time. Starting on April 6, North Korea admitted reporters from 10 countries and more than ten media outlets, from the US, China, Japan, the UK, France, Germany and Vietnam to observe and report on the long-range rocket launch. It also opened a press center on April 7 at the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang.

About 70 foreign experts and reporters had taken a train from Pyongyang to the launch site, where they looked around the facility for more than five hours and listened to explanations from site director Jang Myong-jin.

This open display of the launch site to the foreign press could be an attempt to demonstrate that it is a peaceful satellite that will be launched. “If you see for yourselves, you can judge whether this is a ballistic missile or a satellite launching device,” China’s Renmin Ribao reported Jang as saying. “This is the reason we invited you to the site.”

Jang also said, “This rocket has a self-destruct system, and we have equipment to judge whether the satellite has strayed from its orbit. We are planning to launch a 400-tonne rocket, much heavier than the 91-tonne Unha-3.”

Jang, who said he has served in his profession for more than 20 years since graduating from the Department of Physics at Kim Il Sung University, said that construction of the Dongchang-ri launch site had been completed in 2009. After guiding reporters around the assembly stand, Jang showed them the Kwangmyongsong-3, a square satellite around one meter in height. He explained that the satellite, if launched successfully, would send official songs of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il into space.

The North’s granting of unprecedented pre-launch access to foreign reporters is noteworthy, especially considering how close the journalists were able to come to the launch site. Some observers cite this as proof of just how determined the North is to use this opportunity to gain international legitimacy for its satellite launches.

It is doubtful, however, to what extent the North’s intention will be accepted. South Korea, the US and Japan have already made clear their stances that the North’s launch, whether it is of a satellite or a missile, violates the UN Security Council resolution that covers “any launch that uses ballistic missile technology.”

Christian Lardier, independent French expert in North Korea as an observer, said, “I don’t know what North Korea wants to do in the future, but what we saw today was a space launcher. This technology can be put to military use.”

Many analysts believe that when the launch of the rocket will depend above all on weather factors such as wind strength. When South Korea launched the Naro rocket, it decided on a moment of launch when the wind speed was below 15 meters per second and humidity was below 95%. “We expect April 12 to be the priority date for the launch, but the rocket may be fired any time from the 13th to the 15th according to the weather,” said one government official. Korea Meteorological Administration expects the weather at Sinuiju, near Dongchang-ri, to be slightly cloudy from April 12 to 14 and clear on April 15.

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