朝鲜即将发射火箭，邻国军队观察等待

Military forces in South Korea and Japan are standing by Thursday on the first day of a five-day window for a North Korean rocket launch that Pyongyang says will carry a weather satellite into space. The likelihood that the launch will come Thursday dimmed as mid-day arrived with no sign of new activity at the launch pad outside a cloud-covered Pyongyang. North Korean officials had said the launch will come between Thursday and Monday, and between the hours of 2200 and 0300 UTC. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda repeated his nation\'s appeal for Pyongyang to cancel the launch but said Japanese forces are ready to shoot the rocket down if it strays over Japanese territory. South Korea has also put its forces on heightened alert and threatened to shoot down the rocket if it appears likely to crash into South Korean territory. The Philippines, located near the planned splashdown site of the rocket\'s first stage, has diverted airline flights and ordered fishermen to avoid the area.
 
Paek Chang Ho, chief of North Korea\'s launch command center, told reporters Wednesday that fuel was being loaded into the rocket in one of the final steps before launch. The journalists, including a reporter with VOA\'s Korean service, were able to view the activity by video, which was fed live to the remote command center. Paek said a weather satellite has been installed on the rocket, which is set for launch sometime between Thursday and Monday, depending on weather conditions. The video showed a tarpaulin draped over the top of the rocket, making that claim impossible to confirm. Paek also stressed that North Korea opened the launch command center to journalists to correct any claims it is testing a long range ballistic missile. He pledged to share imagery sent back from the North Korean satellite with other countries. The scheduled launch has angered many of North Korea\'s neighbors, which see the action as a ploy to test a ballistic missile that could later be fitted with a nuclear warhead. 

韩国和日本军队星期四进入观察等待。朝鲜表示计划在五天内发射一枚火箭，星期四是第一天。平壤说，这枚火箭将把一颗气象卫星送入太空。由于阴云笼罩的平壤郊外的发射台没有新活动的迹象，这次发射在星期四进行的可能性已经很小。朝鲜官员曾说，火箭将在星期四和下星期一之间发射，时间是在国际标准时间22时到 3时之间。在东京，日本首相野田佳彦重申日本敦促平壤取消这次发射，但他表示，日本武装力量已经做好准备，如果这枚火箭误入日本领空，就将予以击落。韩国军队也处于高度戒备状态，并威胁说，如果这枚火箭看上去有可能坠入韩国领土，就将予以击落。菲律宾处于这枚火箭计划第一节溅落地点附近，已经让航班改道，并命令渔民避开该海域。
 
朝鲜发射指挥中心负责人白昌浩星期三对记者说，正在把燃料注入火箭，这是发射前的最后步骤之一。包括一名美国之音韩语组记者在内的记者们能够通过现场转播到指挥中心的视频观看这一活动。白昌浩说，火箭上已经装载了一颗气象卫星，根据天气情况，火箭将在星期四和下星期一之间的某个时间发射。视频显示，火箭顶部覆盖了一层油布，这让有关火箭装载气象卫星的说法无法得到证实。白昌浩还强调，朝鲜向外国记者开放发射指挥中心，目的是更正所谓朝鲜准备试射一枚远程弹道导弹的说法。他保证朝鲜将把卫星发回的图像发给其它国家。朝鲜的发射计划激怒了许多邻国，许多国家认为朝鲜以发射火箭为幌子试射一枚可运载核弹头的弹道导弹。