SKorea, Obama seek halt to NKorea rocket launch

South Korea warned of United Nations "countermeasures" after North Korea set dates for a satellite launch seen by Seoul and Washington as a disguised test of a missile which could reach Alaska.

US President Barack Obama spoke of the "risks" posed by Pyongyang's missile plans while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the planned launch "will threaten peace and security in the region."

The communist state has told the International Maritime Organisation and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) it will launch a communications satellite between April 4-8.

The nuclear-armed nation insists on its right to "peaceful" space research and has said any attempt to shoot down its rocket will be an act of war.

The US and South Korea say its real aim is to test a Taepodong-2 missile, and a launch for any purpose would violate UN resolutions passed after the North's missile and nuclear tests in 2006.

"Regardless of whether North Korea fires a missile or launches a satellite, I believe this issue will be raised at the UN Security Council," Seoul's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan told reporters.

A statement from his ministry predicted "consultation and countermeasures" at the council.

It said South Korea is talking with the US, Japan, China and Russia to try to deter the launch. The five states are part of a forum involved in tortuous nuclear disarmament negotiations with the North.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also raised the prospect of a UN response, but analysts believe permanent Security Council members China and Russia will shy away from further sanctions.

Russia's chief nuclear negotiator Alexei Borodavkin was equivocal when asked in Seoul Thursday if a launch would violate UN resolutions. "Let us wait and see what will be the real technical parameters of this launch," he said.

US State Department spokesman Robert Wood repeated warnings against what he said would be a "provocative act," but would not elaborate on a US response.

Yonhap news agency, quoting an intelligence source, has said preparations could be completed in two weeks at the North's Musudan-ri base on its northeast coast.

The only previous Taepodong-2 test, in July 2006, ended in failure after just 40 seconds of flight. But the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a halt to the programme.

Three months later a defiant Pyongyang staged an atomic weapons test. It is unclear whether it has the capability to manufacture a nuclear warhead.

The ICAO said Pyongyang had notified it of a launch sometime between 0200-0700 GMT on one of the four days in April.

It released a map of two potential danger areas, one off Japan's northwest coast and the other in the Pacific, indicating that a multi-stage rocket would overfly Japan after shedding its first booster.

The main body of the rocket would plunge into the Pacific.

Regional tensions are already high, after Pyongyang in late January cancelled all peace accords with Seoul in protest at its conservative government's tougher cross-border policy. 

Since last week it has ordered its military on combat alert and warned South Korean airlines to stay clear of its airspace, in protest at an ongoing US-South Korean military exercise which it sees as a rehearsal for invasion. 

US intelligence chief Dennis Blair said Tuesday the North does indeed appear to be planning a space launch. But the technology involved is indistinguishable from a missile test, he added. 

The North's official media Friday took note of his first comment but not the qualifier. 

"US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair has recognised our preparations to launch a satellite," web newspaper Uriminzokkiri reported.