N. Korea planning to launch satellite or missile?

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea declared Tuesday it is making "brisk headway" in plans to send a satellite into orbit as part of its space program, a launch regional powers fear is a cover up for testing a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Alaska and the western United States.

Analysts called Pyongyang's announcement yet another bid for President Barack Obama's attention as he met in Washington with Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan, a key ally in the regional push to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters Tuesday that North Korea should focus on its commitments to international negotiators working to rid the North of its nuclear weapons.

"Intimidation and threats are not helpful to try to bring about regional stability," Wood said.

North Korea's declaration came just days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a trip to Asia, urged the country to put an end to "provocative actions."

"The North has sent the ball back into the U.S. court," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, calling the threat a tactic to pressure Washington into opening negotiations surrounding Pyongyang's nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution prohibiting Pyongyang from engaging in any ballistic activity following a missile launch in 2006. North Korea could face additional sanctions if it violates the resolution.

In New York, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "monitoring the situation very closely."

North Korea hinted at a plan to launch a satellite last week when it marked autocratic leader Kim Jong Il's 67th birthday by asserting North Korea's right to develop a peaceful space program — words the regime has used in the past to disguise a missile test.

A statement carried Tuesday by state-run Korean Central News Agency said "preparations for launching experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 by means of delivery rocket Unha-2 are now making brisk headway" at a launch site in Hwadae County in the northeast. The statement called the upcoming launch "a giant stride forward" for the country's space program.

The North test-fired a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, a launch the regime also claimed was a satellite.