SKorea expects North Korea 'missile' launch today

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said he expects the communist North to try to press ahead with a planned rocket launch Saturday (today), brushing off calls for restraint by the international community.
The United States and its allies, particularly South Korea and Japan, have condemned the plan as a threat to regional stability and urged the reclusive regime to call off the launch at the eleventh hour.
Pyongyang previously said the launch will be between Saturday and Wednesday, but speaking to a group of reporters in London, including AFP, Lee said he believed the North would press ahead Saturday, if the weather is good enough. If they think its suitable for them, its going tomorrow, Lee said, but warned the North that it was not in their benefit.
But South Koreas weather agency, in a revised forecast, predicted cloudy skies and moderately strong winds at the Musudan-ri launch site in North Koreas northeast on Saturday, with the wind likely to drop Sunday and Monday.
US President Barack Obama demanded the regime call off the launch. We have made very clear to the North Koreans that their missile launch is provocative, Obama said during a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Strasbourg, ahead of the 60th anniversary NATO summit.
Should North Korea decide to take this action, we will work with all interested parties in the international community to take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it cant threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity.
Analysts agree it probably will launch a satellite, but critics believe the real purpose is to test the launch vehicle a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile which could, in theory, reach Alaska or Hawaii.
That would be in defiance of a UN resolution passed after the Norths 2006 missile and nuclear tests.
It comes at a sensitive time, with negotiations on dismantling its nuclear weapons programme in deadlock over verification procedures.
However, Washington later Friday said the nuclear disarmament talks would resume even if the launch goes ahead, but only after the dust settles.
Stephen Bosworth, the US special representative on North Korea policy, said he still hoped the firing of the rocket might not go ahead.
We have continued to urge, as we urge now, (North Korea) not to launch this. Whether its a satellite launch or a missile launch, in our judgment makes no difference. Its a provocative act, Bosworth told a press conference.
Meanwhile, Japan outlined a plan Friday to develop satellites within five years that could quickly detect a ballistic missile or rocket launch from space using infrared sensors.
A task force under Prime Minister Taro Aso released the paper as Japan readied for North Koreas rocket launch.
Japan already has four spy satellites in orbit launched after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998 including one that allows Tokyo to monitor any point on Earth once a day.
But the task force called for the development of infrared sensors on satellites that would detect heat from a missiles blast-off and provide immediate warning, faster than the images taken by spy satellites.
The use of space development serves to strengthen security guarantees. It will advance in the fields of information-gathering and surveillance, the cabinets space development strategy headquarters said in the plan.
The basic plan also proposed the use of space technology for monitoring the sea to detect smuggling, illegal fishing and piracy.