North Korea Fueling Rocket, Update: Launching Soon

Its a good clip and hits at something rarely talked about, how much weapons development has to do with looking for customers and hard currency, including the Iranians. Outside that its an interesting interview and whether North Korea would be launching this missile with McCain in the White House or not is for you to decide. In all we can hope it blows up on the pad, outside of that Obama and the Dems clearly want this to go away as the vacuous nature of smart power is shown to be a talking point in the face of tyranny. Of course with enemies on the march and US citizens being held hostage, we can only hope the President has time to send a video.

Scary

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea has begun fueling its long-range rocket, according to a senior U.S. military official.

The fueling signals that the country could be in the final stages of what North Korea has said will be the launch of a satellite into space as early as this weekend, the senior U.S. military official said Wednesday.Other U.S. military officials said the top portion of the rocket was put on very recently, but satellite imagery shows a shroud over the stage preventing a direct view of what it looks like.The officials said the payload appears to have a "bulbous" cover, which could indicate that there is a satellite loaded on it. Such a cover protects a satellite from damage in flight.

Although the sources did not know for sure what the payload is, they said there is no reason to doubt that it is a satellite, as indicated by North Korea.

North Korea now threatening war:

(CNN) -- North Korea says it will attack the Japanese military and "major targets," if Japan shoots down a rocket Pyongyang plans to launch in the coming days, North Korea's state-run news service, KCNA, reported Thursday.

"If Japan recklessly 'intercepts' [North Korea's] satellite for peaceful purposes, the [Korean People's Army] will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets," KCNA reported.

Japan recently mobilized its missile defense system in response to the planned North Korean launch, Japanese officials said. The move, noteworthy for a country with a pacifist constitution, is aimed at shooting down any debris from the launch that might fall into Japanese territory.

This will teach them:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department on Thursday sent a blunt, public message to North Korea: Don't launch your rocket.

"We don't want to see this launch go forward," department spokesman Robert Wood said.

But at the same time, the United States is carefully avoiding any suggestion that it would try to disrupt the launch and is being vague about what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others have said the "consequences" of the launch would be.

CNN) -- North Korea has completed preparations for launching what it says is "an experimental communications satellite," the reclusive nation's state news agency reported early Saturday.

"The satellite will be launched soon," KCNA reported.

How "soon" was anyone's guess.

On Friday, President Obama reiterated that the United States strongly opposes any such launch.

"We have made it very clear to the North Koreans that their missile launch is provocative, it puts enormous strains on the Six-Party Talks and that they should stop the launch," Obama said while on a stop in France.

Obama warned that the United States will join with its allies to take "appropriate steps" to let North Korea know it can't violate United Nations rules and get away with it.

Western nations fear that North Korea plans a ballistic missile test rather than a satellite launch, but the administration's special envoy to the Six-Party Talks, Stephen Bosworth, said it didn't matter if the North Koreans were trying to put a satellite in space or testing a ballistic missile that could threaten Japan or the United States.