North Korea brings forward rocket launch time frame to February 7-14

The group said the images indicated no significant changes at the launch pad itself, where work platforms on the gantry towers remained folded forward.

Japan and South Korea said North Korea had issued a Notice to Airmen that the launch would take place some time between Sunday and the following Sunday, Feb. 14.

Japan has said it would shoot down the rocket if it threatened the country, and on Saturday accelerated the deployment of two additional PAC-3 missile units in response to the revised launch time frame, a Japanese defence ministry official said.

South Korea, the United States and others have been looking to China to use more of its leverage with North Korea to hold the provocative regime accountable for its recent nuclear test and to discourage further provocations.

The U.S.-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins University said on its 38 North website there was no activity indicating an imminent launch and it was unknown if a rocket had already been put on the launchpad of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. “It should not act in a way that may escalate tensions on the peninsula”, Lu said Wednesday.

South Korean officials routinely refer to them as “long-range missiles” rather than space rockets.

The separated first stage was predicted to fall in the Yellow Sea off the west coast of South Korea, followed by a second stage splashdown in the Philippine Sea.

While Pyongyang claims that its space program is entirely peaceful, many global observers think the true objective is military.

Critics say the satellite launch is a cover for a test of Pyongyang’s ballistic missiles.

The North has informed United Nations agencies that it will launch a satellite sometime between February 8 and 25, widely seen as a covert test of ballistic missile technology.

Last year, US military authorities said they thought North Korea had the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead to fit on a KN-08 long-range missile, although North Korea has not yet demonstrated this capability.

The North has called on the U.S.to abandon its hostile policy toward North Korea, saying that its four nuclear tests were an act of deterrence against what it calls Washington’s attempt at nuclear attacks.