SEOUL: North Korea has installed the first stage of a long-range rocket it plans to launch this month on the launch pad, defying international calls to cancel the mission, a report said on Monday.

North Korea announced on Saturday that it would carry out its second long-range rocket launch this year between December 10 and 22. Pyongyang insists it is a purely “peaceful, scientific” mission aimed at placing a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite in orbit.

But the United States and its key Asian allies South Korea and Japan have condemned the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test that violates United Nations (UN) resolutions triggered by Pyongyang’s two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

The North’s last rocket launch in April ended in failure with the carrier flying for just over two minutes before breaking up and falling into the Yellow Sea.

The first stage has been placed in position at the North’s Sohae satellite launch station, a South Korean government source told Yonhap news agency.

In a notification to neighboring countries, Pyongyang said that the launch timing would be between 7 a.m. (6 a.m. in Manila) and midday on any day in the given window, Yonhap quoted a foreign ministry official as saying.

According to the notice, the first stage would fall into the Yellow Sea off the Korean peninsula’s west coast and the second would come down in the sea some 190 kilometers east of the Philippines.

Japan readies missile defense
Japan has reportedly issued orders to shoot down the missile if it strays into Japanese territory. Tokyo also begun deploying a surface-to-air missile defense system and is putting its armed forces on standby ahead, media and officials said on Monday.

Public broadcaster NHK repor-ted that a naval vessel carrying PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability-3) ballistic missiles left a western Japan naval base on Monday, headed for the country’s southern Okinawa island chain.

Defense Minister Satoshi Mori-moto on Saturday ordered the military to prepare for the rocket launch, with a defense ministry spokesman saying that “our ground, marine and air forces are now preparing to deploy troops in Okinawa,” which the rocket may fly over.

Tokyo is also planning to deploy Aegis warships in neighboring waters, the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun and other Japanese media reported on Monday.

Officials are preparing to issue an advance order as soon as Friday to shoot down the rocket if it looks set to fall on Japanese territory, after an emergency meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Noda on Monday also called for close cooperation with the United States, China, South Korea and Russia in preparation for the planned launch, which has drawn international condemnation.

Concerns at rocket launch
Washington and Seoul urged Pyongyang to scrap the launch. South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy Lim Sung-Nam was to meet with ambassadors from China, Russia and Japan in Seoul on Monday to discuss the planned launch. Lim also plans to visit the United States on Tuesday for talks with his US counterpart, Glyn Davies, a foreign ministry official said.

China, the North’s closest ally, has expressed “concern” at the launch plan, with the foreign ministry urging “relevant parties [to] act in a way that is more conducive to the stability of the Korean peninsula.”

Meanwhile, Russia on Monday strongly urged North Korea to reconsider its plan to launch a rocket later this month, saying that Moscow regretted the move.

Russia added that the launch would violate UN Security Council resolution 1874, which “unambiguously” prohibits Pyongyang from carrying out ballistic missile launches.