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  Date / Time: 4/2/2009 8:26 PM UTC

  barack Hussain Warns North Korea?
  

  Barack Obama warns North Korea over rocket launch as Pyongyang 'fuels missile'

  North Korea can expect a "stern, unified action" from the international community if it test-fires a ballistic missile, US President Barack Obama has said.

   

  By Peter Foster in Beijing
  Last Updated: 5:14PM BST 02 Apr 2009

  

  South Korean protesters burn a mock missile, pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and North's flags during a rally against North Korea's missile in Seoul, South Korea, Photo: AP

  Mr Obama promised tough action at a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit as reports emerged that Pyongyang had begun fuelling the long-range rocket for an impending launch.

  US military officials said that technicians have started to fuel up the three-stage Taepodong-2 missile at Musudan-ri launch site in the country's northeast in defiance of a 2006 UN resolution.

   

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  Pyongyang has said that the missile-test is a satellite launch not covered by the UN resolution and has informed international agencies that it will fire the rocket as early as Saturday.

  US intelligence officials said that analysis of the rocket's nose-cone appeared to confirm claims that it was a satellite launch, but added that the launch was a cover for testing ballistic missile technology capable of delivering a warhead as far as Alaska or Hawaii.

  Diplomatic tensions are building on the Korean peninsula, where relations between North and South have sunk to their lowest levels in a decade.

  South Korea said it was now actively considering taking part in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative which could see it stopping ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction or related materials.

  The North's Minju Joson newspaper responded that any such move would amount to a "declaration of war".

  The rhetoric from Pyongyang has been similarly bellicose towards Japan, which has deployed Patriot missile batteries to intercept the rocket, should it begin falling towards Japanese territory.

  "If Japan recklessly 'intercepts' the DPRK's (North'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," said a statement from the KPA.

  The North, which has deployed a squadron of MiG-23 warplanes to protect the launch site, according to a South Korean news agency, has also threatened to shoot down any US spy planes that enter its airspace.

  Analysts have said that North Korea's desire to launch the missile is in part fuelled by the need for a "propaganda triumph" for the state's ailing leader Kim Jong-il, who is thought to have suffered a stroke last year.

  Nuclear disarmament talks between North Korea and Japan, China, South Korea, Russia and the US - the so-called Six Party talks - have been stalled since December. Pyongyang has threatened to pull out permanently if the missile is intercepted.

  However, while Japan has threatened to deepen its bilateral sanctions against Pyongyang, a US and South Korean call for sanctions could be vetoed by China and Russia at the UN Security Council.

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