NKorea hints at rocket launch as Kim turns 67

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea suggested Monday it is preparing a rocket launch, claiming the country has the right to "space development"—a term Pyongyang has used in the past to disguise a long-range missile test as a satellite launch.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency made the suggestion on the 67th birthday of leader Kim Jong Il, and accused the the United States and other countries of trying to block the country's "peaceful scientific research" by linking it to a long-range missile test.

"One will come to know later what will be launched" from North Korea, KCNA said.

When the North test-fired a long-range missile in 1998, it claimed it put a satellite into orbit.

The KCNA report comes amid growing international pressure on the communist country to back out of apparent plans to carry out a test launch of a missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last week urged North Korea to avoid provocations, was on her way to the region. North Korea is expected to be a key topic for her visit to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.

Pyongyang has reportedly moved a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, its most advanced, to a launch site on the country's northeastern coast. South Korean media have said a launch could come late this month.

On Monday, Seoul's mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said the North had moved all necessary equipment to fire a missile to the Musudan-ni site and that a launch could be ready earlier than expected. The report cited unnamed government officials.

Analysts say North Korea's saber-rattling appears to be an attempt to draw Obama's attention, to start negotiations where it can extract concessions.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have repeatedly urged the North not to fire a missile. Clinton, before departing for Asia, also urged Pyongyang not to take any provocative actions, saying Washington is willing to normalize ties with it in return for nuclear disarmament.

On Sunday, the North's No. 2 leader said the country is ready to improve relations with any country that is "friendly toward us" in a possible olive branch to Washington ahead of Clinton's trip.

North Korea has also been escalating tensions with the South, declaring all peace pacts with Seoul dead in anger over the hard-line stance that pro-U.S., conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has taken toward it.

South Korean media have speculated that Pyongyang may provoke an armed clash near their disputed sea border—the scene of two deadly skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.

Kim's birthday comes months after the autocratic leader apparently suffered a stroke in August. His condition appears to have improved, as he met with a Chinese envoy last month—his first known meeting with a foreign dignitary. Pyongyang has denied Kim was ever ill. His health is a focus of intense media attention as he has not anointed any of his three known sons as an heir. Kim's birthday is one of the North's biggest national holidays, along with that of his late father and national founder Kim Il Sung who died in 1994. An intense cult of personality flourishes around the autocratic leader.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9...;show_article=1

[Jasman0717 9]

This guy is like a bad habit, keeps coming back, shouldn't he be about ready to croak

[Nagishkaw 510]

0ne would think.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

[Jasman0717 9]

[Nagishkaw 510]

0h noooooooooooooooooooo