Pyongyang informed the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that it will fire a rocket to launch the satellite between April 4-8, an official at Seoul's maritime affairs ministry said.

Citing information from the IMO, the official said the North had told the UN regulatory agency of two risk areas, one in the Pacific Ocean and the other in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

"The IMO is currently working on an official safety notice, which it will soon hand out to its member countries," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Earlier Thursday the North said it had provided "necessary information for the safe navigation of planes and ships" as part of preparations for launching "an experimental communications satellite."

South Korean and US officials believe the real intention is to test a Taepodong-2 missile which could theoretically reach Alaska.

The nuclear-armed North has asserted its right to peaceful space research and says any attempt to shoot down its rocket will be seen as an act of war.

There have been reports for weeks that the North is preparing to test-fire the Taepodong-2 from a base at Musudan-ri on the northeast coast.

The Taepodong-2 failed after 40 seconds when first launched in July 2006 but the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a halt to such tests.

Three months after that, the North staged an atomic weapons test. But it is unclear whether it has the capability to manufacture a nuclear warhead.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency said a missile has not yet been set upright at Musudan-ri but that launch preparations could be completed within two weeks.

The North's newly elected parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, is expected to meet in early April to re-elect leader Kim Jong-Il as chairman of the National Defence Commission.

Some analysts say this would be seen as an appropriate launch time.

Tensions are already high after Pyongyang ordered its military on combat alert and banned South Korean airlines from its airspace. It was protesting at an ongoing US-South Korean military exercise, which it sees as a rehearsal for invasion.

The US intelligence chief Dennis Blair said Tuesday the North does indeed appear to be planning a space launch but that the technology involved is indistinguishable from a missile test.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Wednesday that the United States, China and other negotiating partners were willing to discuss a range of responses, even UN action, if North Korea test-fires a missile.

The two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan are members of a six-party forum negotiating an end to the North's nuclear programmes.

"We are outspoken in our opposition to the North Koreans' missile launch, and we believe that that is a unified position and that each of the members of the six-party talks have attempted to dissuade North Korea from proceeding," Clinton said after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

She said the partners were willing to respond to any launch "in a variety of ways, including the Security Council."

State media said North Korea has also joined an international treaty and convention on the peaceful use of space.

South Korea's foreign ministry confirmed Pyongyang this month sent relevant documents to Russia's foreign ministry and to the United Nations.

"The North's accession to the treaty is aimed at paving the way for claiming that the launch, which may come in the future, is to put a satellite in orbit," said spokesman Moon Tae-Young.

"Irrespective of those moves, such a launch would be a breach of UN resolution 1718."

Japan's government said it "would not tolerate" a North Korean act that raises regional tensions.

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Seoul (AFP) March 12, 2009
South Korea's first space rocket launch has been postponed by a month to late July to give engineers more time for tests, the government said Thursday.