N. Korea signals satellite launch, feasts on leader's birthday

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead, UPDATES the story with U.S. calling N.K.'s 1998
rocket 'failed satellite,' analyst view, leaflets flown)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea signaled Monday that it is preparing to
launch a satellite, sharpening its combative diplomacy on leader Kim Jong-il's
birthday amid rising tension with South Korea and stalled nuclear negotiations
with the United States.

Pyongyang made clear it will go ahead with what it called its "space development"
program, a possible message to Washington ahead of U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton's visit to Seoul this week.
"One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK," the North's
official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. DPRK stands for the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
The statement denied intelligence information from Seoul and Washington that
Pyongyang appeared to be preparing to test-launch a long-range missile.
"Space development is the independent right of the DPRK and the requirement of
the developing reality," the KCNA said, calling outside reports a "vicious
trick" to stop its sovereign activity.
The North made a similar claim after launching a rocket in 1998, saying it
succeeded in putting a satellite in orbit. The U.S. later called the event a
failed satellite launch, saying Pyongyang had not yet mastered the solid-fuel
technology required for such a launch.
Unlike Iran, which launched a satellite earlier this month, North Korea will
likely wait for the Barack Obama administration to roll out its policy before
taking a final step toward a launch, which would likely require two more weeks of
preparation, said Cha Doo-hyeogn, an analyst with the Korea Institute for Defense
Analyses, a state-run think tank.
"North Korea is putting one foot forward to see how Hillary Clinton will respond.
It wants to see how far the U.S. will lay out its policy spectrum," Cha said.
Pyongyang has called on Washington to normalize relations, which would open doors
to large economic assistance for the communist state. Negotiations on Pyongyang's
nuclear program are on hold due to a dispute over how to verify its past
activity.
Turning to Seoul's conservative government, Pyongyang sent a more direct and
harsher message. The North's titular head of state, Kim Yong-nam, berated the
Seoul government as "anti-unification war-mongers" and warned of "decisive
action" on the eve of the leader's birthday.
North Korea in recent weeks vowed to take an "all-out confrontational posture"
against the Lee Myung-bak government and threatened naval clashes along a shared
western sea border, in what appeared to be an attempt to pressure Lee into
dropping his tough policy.
Domestically, North Korea drummed up a festive mood as citizens renewed pledges
of loyalty to leader Kim, who appeared to be back in charge after a reported
stroke last summer as concerns about his health refused to subside.
"This February morning that beautifully ascended with our prayers, the earnest
wish running over in the heart of the millions of people is the well-being and
good health of our great father," said an anchor on the Korean Central
Broadcasting Station.
Warm wishes for good health and hero-worship abounded on the leader's birthday,
as the government handed out free food, liquor and daily necessities to citizens
as gifts from Kim. Streets, bridges and residential quarters were decorated with
flowers and electric lamps, and a flower festival named after the leader and
athletic events stirred up the festive mood, reports said.
An "endless stream of visitors" flowed to Kim's birthplace on Mount Paekdu, the
KCNA said.
Outside experts believe Kim was actually born in a Soviet village in 1942.
Yet as the North reveled in celebrations, just south of the border the leader was
dubbed "the most vicious dictator and murderer" by activists flying
anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea.
"We planned this, recalling Chairman Kim Jong-il handing out birthday gifts to
citizens," Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and head of Seoul-based Freedom
Fighters for North Korea, said before flying some 20,000 leaflets attached to
gas-filled balloons from Imjingak village near the western border.
The activists attached North Korean currency to the leaflets to encourage people
to pick them up, but an unfavorable wind direction made their flight beyond the
border uncertain. With the propaganda campaign sure to provoke Pyongyang, Seoul's
Unification Ministry called for restraint and warned of potential consequences.
Kim's birthday is the most important holiday in the North along with April 15,
the birthday of his late father and North Korean founder Kim Il-sung. The younger
Kim took over when his father died in 1994, the first hereditary power succession
in a communist regime.
Since his reported stroke in August, speculation has mounted over who Kim will
name as his successor. Intelligence sources told Yonhap last month that Kim,
apparently driven by his poor health condition, named his third and youngest son,
Kim Jong-un, to the country's highest position.
North Korea also holds parliamentary elections on March 8, an important vote that
analysts in Seoul say could lay the groundwork for the post-Kim era.
Kim's military shakeup last week, in which some of his close confidantes were
promoted, was also seen as a sign that the leader is assembling his aides ahead
of his choice of a successor.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)