N. Korea could try long-range rocket test again

SEOUL — North Korea is gearing up to fire a long-range rocket this month in a defiant move expected to raise the stakes of a global standoff over its missile and nuclear programs.

The North’s announcement Saturday that it would launch the rocket between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22 came as President Obama prepares for his second term and as South Korea holds a presidential election Dec. 19.

It would be North Korea’s second launch attempt under leader Kim Jong-un, who took power after his father Kim Jong-il’s death nearly a year ago.

Some analysts have expressed skepticism that North Korea has corrected whatever caused the embarrassing misfire of its last rocket eight months ago. That launch earned the country widespread international condemnation.

A spokesman for North Korea’s Korean Committee for Space Technology, however, said scientists have “analyzed the mistakes” made in the failed April launch and improved the precision of its Unha rocket and Kwangmyongsong satellite, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement said the launch is a request of late leader Kim Jong-il. He died on Dec. 17, and North Koreans are expected to mark that date this year with some fanfare.

The space agency said the rocket would be mounted with a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite, and maintained its right to develop a peaceful space program.

Washington considers North Korea’s rocket launches to be veiled covers for tests of technology for long-range missiles designed to strike the United States, and such tests are banned by the United Nations.

“A North Korean ‘satellite’ launch would be a highly provocative act,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington, D.C. “Any North Korean launch using ballistic missile technology is in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

In 2009, North Korea conducted rocket and nuclear tests within months of Mr. Obama taking office.

China, the North’s main ally and aid provider, also expressed concerns about the launch. Beijing’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday acknowledged North Korea’s right to the peaceful use of outer space, but said that had to be harmonized with restrictions, including those set by the U.N. Security Council.

North Korea has capable short- and medium-range missiles, but long-range launches in 1998, 2006, 2009 and in April this year ended in failure.

North Korea is not known to have succeeded in mounting an atomic bomb on a missile, but is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen bombs, according to U.S. experts. In 2010, it revealed a uranium enrichment program that could provide a second source of material for nuclear weapons.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

There has been some skepticism about whether North Korea will succeed.

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