Weather may have delayed North Korea launch

By Jon Herskovitz and Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - Poor weather and planning may have forced North Korea to delay the launch of a long-range rocket Saturday, officials in Seoul said, after Pyongyang reported preparations were complete and lift-off would take place soon.

The United States, Japan and South Korea see the launch as the test of a long-range missile designed to carry a warhead to U.S. territory and say it would violate U.N. resolutions.

North Korea has said the launch would take place between April 4-8 from the hours of 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. EDT. It has tested the rocket known as the Taepodong-2 only once before, in 2006, when it exploded less than a minute into flight.

Impoverished North Korea, which for years has used military threats to wring concessions from regional powers, has said it is putting a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful space program and threatened war if the rocket was intercepted.

"We thought the launch was likely today, but weather conditions at the rocket base may not have been favorable," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a presidential Blue House official as saying. A separate government source told Yonhap that the North's preparations appeared to be insufficient.

South Korea's meteorological agency said the general area around the North Korean missile base was under mostly cloudy skies with occasionally strong winds. A slightly clearer day is forecast for Sunday and Monday, with less wind.

Experts have said clear visibility would help North Korea, with limited radar capabilities, monitor the flight.

It also needs good weather to shoot footage that analysts said would be played on state TV if the launch worked.