Pyongyang begins fueling rocket

Pyongyang has begun injecting fuel into a rocket built to carry a satellite into space, a China Daily journalist invited by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) to watch the upcoming rocket launch reported.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's scientists work at the West Sea Satellite Launch Site, at the satellite control center of the Korean Committee of Space Technology on the outskirts of Pyongyang April 11, 2012. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

"The assembly of the satellite has been completed, and the rocket is on the launch vehicle. We're injecting fuels," Paek Chung-hou, general director of the General Satellite Control and Command Center of DPRK, told reporters.

The DPRK government this morning invited a group of journalists to the facility, located about 20 km northwest of Pyongyang.

When asked if the satellite would be launched on Thursday since the weather conditions are expected to be very good, the director said "the exact date will be decided by the superior".

Experts said it will take nine to 10 hours to inject fuel into the rocket, which means it could be launched as soon as tomorrow, and no later than the weekend.

Paek said even though he is busy preparing for the launch, the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un ordered him to conduct interviews with the media.

"It is unprecedented, to show the transparency of the launch," he said, adding "it is necessary to share the data (of the launch) with other countries".

"As you have seen here, you will know this is a satellite but not a missile, which has a warhead," Paek said, adding that Washington's accusations that Pyongyang is launching a missile are due to decades of misunderstanding and a hostile attitude toward the East Asian country.

Paek, however, said the people of the DPRK "didn't really care about the opinion from the outside". "It (the launch) is critical to the development of our economy. That is why we are going ahead with it".

"The Americans make us very puzzled. They will exaggerate the threat and military power of the DPRK when they need a larger military budget," he added.

A China Daily reporter at the site saw a total of 16 people working in the facility. A large screen in the center of the facility showed a live image of the launch site.

Some of the staff worked on the DPRK's two previous rocket launches.

Paek graduated from a university in the DPRK, majoring in physics. He has also studied in other countries and worked in the space field for 30 years.

James Oberg, an NBC News 'Space Consultant' and one of the world's leading interpreters of space exploration, told China Daily, "I believe this is not a military shot".

A journalist from Sweden, who did not give his name, said Pyongyang has showed its sincerity by inviting so many foreign reporters to witness the launch.

The DPRK plans to launch the rocket between Thursday and Monday, as part of a celebration to mark the birth centennial on Sunday of its national founder Kim Il-sung. It has invited foreign experts and more than 100 foreign reporters to observe the launch.