Satellite image of North Korean missile indicates satellite payload

Washington: The missile/rocket that North Korea is expected to launch anytime over the weekend appears to have a bulb-shaped nose cone indicating a satellite payload, rather than a warhead, media reports quote US defence officials as saying. Such reports have begun to emerge only after a commercial satellite image of the Musudan-ri missile test site showed a Taepodong-2 rocket with a bulb-shaped payload cover.

The image was posted 29 March on the Web site 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.

The bulb shape, according to analysts, is similar to the current nose cone standard for military and commercial satellite launches, and of the same design used by space agencies of other countries. The nose of a missile with a warhead design would more likely be cone-shaped.

North Korea has announced it will launch a satellite into space sometime in the period 4-8 April and has also issued a notice to mariners about potentially hazardous conditions in the North Pacific between 3 am and 8 am British time each day, commencing Saturday.

North Korea has come under pressure over the launch with South Korea, Japan and the United States dubbing it a ballistic missile test. These countries claim the launch is basically intended to test a missile capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii. Suspicions are high because of a failed Taepodong-2 test in 2006.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have already deployed missile-interceptor ships and land-based batteries in the seas around the area, as well as their countries.

Meanwhile, reports are emerging suggesting that North Korea may have begun fuelling the rocket in preparation for the launch. A CNN report quoted a senior US military official as saying Wednesday that Pyongyang could be in the final stages of a launch.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, which operates a situation room round the clock to monitor the launch, said it would not comment on the CNN report.

South Korea, Japan and the United States have argued that it doesn't matter if the rocket/missile is carrying a satellite or a dummy warhead, for any launch of such a nature would breach UN resolutions.

"Whether it is a satellite or a missile, the technology is the same," Seoul's defence minister Lee Sang-Hee told a parliamentary hearing Wednesday. Lee and his US counterpart Robert Gates conversed Thursday and agreed to respond "firmly" to any launch, the defence ministry told AFP, suggesting that a variety of responses was discussed.

Meanwhile, Chosun Ilbo, a leading South Korean daily has reported that the North has moved its most advanced jet fighters to the northeast region where the Musudan-ri launch site is located.

Earlier, on Wednesday, it had threatened to shoot down US spy planes monitoring the site.

In London, at the G-20 summit, Japan said it has the backing of several G-20 partners including South Korea and Britain to refer the issue to the UN Security Council.

This has also prompted a tough North Korean response which has said that even a UN discussion of its launch would trigger the breakdown of international nuclear disarmament talks.

A UN resolution passed after North Korea's 2006 missile and nuclear tests bars it from engaging in missile-related activities.