SEOUL: North Korea said that it may delay a much-criticized long-range rocket launch originally scheduled  Monday, but gave no hint of the reasons.

Scientists and technicians were “now seriously examining the issue of readjusting the launching time of the satellite for some reasons,” the Korean Committee of Space Technology said.

Analysts said that technical problems or snow, rather than overseas political pressure, could be behind the delay in what the North calls a satellite launch.

One said that the country’s new leader may have been rushing the blast-off set between December 10 and 22 in an attempt to mark a key political anniversary.

A long-range launch in April, also purportedly to put a satellite into orbit, failed embarrassingly when the rocket blew up seconds after lift-off.

The English-language version of the space committee’s statement, carried on the official news agency, said preparations for the latest launch had been in “the final stage.”

The nuclear-armed nation insists its three-stage rocket will blast off from a west coast site to launch a satellite for peaceful scientific purposes.

But the United States and allies South Korea and Japan, said that Pyongyang plans a disguised ballistic missile test that violates United Nations resolutions triggered by its two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

Japan on Friday ordered its military to shoot down the rocket if it threatens the nation’s territory. Washington put anti-missile destroyers into position, ramping up pressure on Pyongyang.

A US think-tank, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said on Friday that preparations may have been delayed by heavy snow.

“Sunday’s announcement was only made by scientific authorities, meaning the most likely reason is either technical issues or weather conditions,” said Jang Yong-Seok from the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University.

There had been “abnormal signs” indicating technical problems in launch preparations since Saturday afternoon, said South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified senior Seoul official.

Pyongyang has apparently “rushed too fast” to time the launch to mark the first anniversary of the death of leader Kim Jong-Il on December 17, said Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.

“It showed how desperate and time-pressed the North was to showcase its scientific breakthrough to its people on the key anniversary and subsequently rally support for the new leader, Jong-Un,” Yang said.

The young and inexperienced Jong-Un took over from his late father last December, the second father-to-son power transfer by the Kim dynasty that has ruled the isolated and impoverished state with an iron fist for some 60 years.

Analysts said that the December 10-22 launch window was twice as long as the period set before the failed April launch. They said that this reflected the difficulties technicians may encounter in the harsh winter weather of the Korean peninsula.