North Korea reasserts right to launch satellite amid growing tensions

North Korea warned the United States, Japan and their allies not to interfere with its plan to launch a satellite into space next month, saying Tuesday any intervention could doom already stalled talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has declared its intention to send a communications satellite into space between April 4 and 8, and a defence analyst said recent images of the launch pad indicated preparations were continuing.

Regional powers suspect the North will use the launch to test its long-range missile technology, and has warned Pyongyang the launch would trigger international sanctions.

A 2006 UN Security Council resolution prohibits North Korea from engaging in ballistic activity, which Washington and its allies say includes firing a long-range missile or using a rocket to send a satellite into space.

On Tuesday, the North's Foreign Ministry reasserted its right to peaceful development of its space program.

"The countries which find fault with [North Korea's] satellite launch, including the U.S. and Japan, launched satellites before it," said the statement, according to the state's official Korean Central News Agency. The stance proves their "their hostility toward us," it said.

The impending launch has raised tensions in the region.

Japan has hinted it could shoot down any missile but the country's foreign minister cast doubt on that assertion on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said "it would be difficult" for Japan to intercept fragments of a missile that might fall into Japanese territory after a launch.

Countermeasures considered

South Korean envoy Wi Sung-lac was scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei for two days of discussions beginning on Tuesday, which he said will focus on creating contingency plans in case Pyongyang goes ahead with the rocket launch.

"As the clock ticks, we are placing more weight on countermeasures after a launch," he said.

Regional powers are looking to China, North Korea's biggest benefactor and longtime communist ally, to help calm tensions in the region and persuade the North to return to the negotiating table.

But the North has warned that the attempts by Washington and Tokyo to deny Pyongyang the right to use space for peaceful purposes was discriminatory and not in keeping with the "spirit of mutual respect and equality" of a disarmament pact Pyongyang signed in 2005 with five other nations.

Under the deal, the North pledged to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

In 2007, the country agreed on the initial disarmament steps disabling its main nuclear facilities in return for the equivalent ofone million tons of energy aid and other benefits.

The disarmament process, however, has been stalled since last year over a disagreement with Washington over how to verify the North's past atomic activities.

The statement warned that sanctions would "deprive the six-party talks of any ground to exist or their meaning."

The North also said it would not abandon its nuclear weapons and had no choice but to strengthen its forces in the face of such hostility. The statement didn't elaborate.