North Korea plans to launch long range rocket

Seoul: North Korea announced on Saturday an imminent rocket launch in a move sure to draw stern US and UN condemnation and rack up tensions with South Korea which is just days from a presidential election.

It will be the North’s second long-range rocket launch this year following a much-hyped but failed attempt in April.

The US and its allies insist the launches are disguised tests for an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

As such they would contravene UN resolutions triggered by Pyongyang’s two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.