S Korea says North wants rocket for nuclear weapon

Protestors hold banners during an anti-nuclear rally denouncing upcoming Seoul Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul yesterday. The campaigners for the "nuclear-free world" accused the summit for trying to expand nuclear power plants. Photo: AFP

South Korea yesterday condemned rival North Korea's planned rocket launch as a "grave provocation", saying it was a disguised attempt to develop a long-range ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Seoul also extended a security alert in the capital, and said it was concerned the North might follow the ballistic missile launch with another nuclear test.
The North announced on Friday it would put a satellite into orbit next month barely two weeks after reaching an agreement with Washington to suspend long-range missile launches as part of a deal to restart food aid.
"Our government defines North Korea's so-called working satellite launch plan as a grave provocation to develop a long-distance delivery means for nuclear weapons by using ballistic missile technology," presidential spokesman Park Jung-ha said in a statement.
Washington says the North's long-range ballistic missile program is progressing quickly, and last year said the American mainland could come under threat within five years.
The secretive North has twice tested a nuclear device, but experts doubt whether it yet has the ability to miniaturize an atomic bomb to place atop a warhead.
Pyongyang is believed to have enough fissile material to make up to a dozen nuclear bombs, and in 2010 unveiled a uranium enrichment facility to go with its plutonium program which opened a second route to making an atomic weapon.
Yesterday, President Lee Myung-bak met the foreign and security-related ministers to discuss the North's surprise announcement, which also flies in the face of a U.N. Security Council resolution banning long-range missile launches.
Park said in a statement that Seoul would work closely with the United States, Japan, China and Russia - all members of the six-party forum which deals with the North's nuclear program - during next week's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul.