朝鮮即將發射火箭，鄰國軍隊觀察等待

Military forces in South Korea and Japan are standing by Thursday on the first day of a five-day window for a North Korean rocket launch that Pyongyang says will carry a weather satellite into space. The likelihood that the launch will come Thursday dimmed as mid-day arrived with no sign of new activity at the launch pad outside a cloud-covered Pyongyang. North Korean officials had said the launch will come between Thursday and Monday, and between the hours of 2200 and 0300 UTC. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda repeated his nation's appeal for Pyongyang to cancel the launch but said Japanese forces are ready to shoot the rocket down if it strays over Japanese territory. South Korea has also put its forces on heightened alert and threatened to shoot down the rocket if it appears likely to crash into South Korean territory. The Philippines, located near the planned splashdown site of the rocket's first stage, has diverted airline flights and ordered fishermen to avoid the area.

Paek Chang Ho, chief of North Korea's launch command center, told reporters Wednesday that fuel was being loaded into the rocket in one of the final steps before launch. The journalists, including a reporter with VOA's Korean service, were able to view the activity by video, which was fed live to the remote command center. Paek said a weather satellite has been installed on the rocket, which is set for launch sometime between Thursday and Monday, depending on weather conditions. The video showed a tarpaulin draped over the top of the rocket, making that claim impossible to confirm. Paek also stressed that North Korea opened the launch command center to journalists to correct any claims it is testing a long range ballistic missile. He pledged to share imagery sent back from the North Korean satellite with other countries. The scheduled launch has angered many of North Korea's neighbors, which see the action as a ploy to test a ballistic missile that could later be fitted with a nuclear warhead.韓國和日本軍隊星期四進入觀察等待。朝鮮表示計劃在五天內發射一枚火箭，星期四是第一天。平壤說，這枚火箭將把一顆氣象衛星送入太空。由於陰雲籠罩的平壤郊外的發射臺沒有新活動的跡象，這次發射在星期四進行的可能性已經很小。朝鮮官員曾說，火箭將在星期四和下星期一之間發射，時間是在國際標準時間22時到 3時之間。在東京，日本首相野田佳彥重申日本敦促平壤取消這次發射，但他表示，日本武裝力量已經做好準備，如果這枚火箭誤入日本領空，就將予以擊落。韓國軍隊也處於高度戒備狀態，並威脅說，如果這枚火箭看上去有可能墜入韓國領土，就將予以擊落。菲律賓處於這枚火箭計劃第一節濺落地點附近，已經讓航班改道，並命令漁民避開該海域。

朝鮮發射指揮中心負責人白昌浩星期三對記者說，正在把燃料注入火箭，這是發射前的最後步驟之一。包括一名美國之音韓語組記者在內的記者們能夠通過現場轉播到指揮中心的視頻觀看這一活動。白昌浩說，火箭上已經裝載了一顆氣象衛星，根據天氣情況，火箭將在星期四和下星期一之間的某個時間發射。視頻顯示，火箭頂部覆蓋了一層油布，這讓有關火箭裝載氣象衛星的說法無法得到證實。白昌浩還強調，朝鮮向外國記者開放發射指揮中心，目的是更正所謂朝鮮準備試射一枚遠程彈道導彈的說法。他保證朝鮮將把衛星發回的圖像發給其它國家。朝鮮的發射計劃激怒了許多鄰國，許多國家認爲朝鮮以發射火箭爲幌子試射一枚可運載核彈頭的彈道導彈。