AFP - North Korea said Saturday it has finished its preparations for a satellite launch which would go ahead "soon" -- keeping the world guessing on the timing of what critics see as a disguised missile test.
   
In a sign of frayed nerves, Japan's government at one point said the rocket launch was thought to have gone ahead, only later to retract its statement as incorrect.
   
The nuclear-armed communist North says it is planning a peaceful satellite launch, and has defied demands from the United States and its regional allies to cancel the exercise.
   
Its state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said preparations for launching the communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 "have been completed" at a site in the northeast.
   
"The satellite will be launched soon," it said, citing information from the Korean Committee of Space Technology.
   
KCNA said the satellite would be carried by an Unha-2 (Galaxy-2) rocket -- known in the West as the Taepodong-2 which could theoretically reach Alaska or Hawaii at maximum range.
   
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have vowed to refer a launch to the UN Security Council as a breach of a resolution passed after the North's 2006 missile and nuclear tests.
   
The North says that even a Council debate about its launch would lead to a breakdown of long-running six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
   
It has announcd the launch for April 4-8, and between the hours of 11:00am and 4:00pm (0200-0700 GMT).
   
Seoul's Yonhap news agency said cameras had been set up at three different places around the launch site at Musudan-ri.
   
"Given that the fuelling work has been completed and then the monitoring cameras have been set up, it is very likely for the launch to be in several hours," it quoted a Seoul government source as saying.
   
But YTN television, quoting Seoul military sources, said the North has not yet switched on radar systems at Musudan-ri.
   
It said such radar signals had been detected several hours before previous launches. Seoul security officials declined comment.
   
The North says the first stage of the rocket will fall in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) some 75 miles (47 miles) from Japan's coast, and the second stage will plunge into the Pacific.
   
US President Barack Obama urged Kim Jong-Il's regime to desist.
   
"We have made very clear to the North Koreans that their missile launch is provocative," he said Friday in Strasbourg.
   
"Should North Korea decide to take this action, we will work with all interested parties in the international community to take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can't threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity."
   
Obama's special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, gave an apparently softer message, saying that his goal is to resume stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks no matter what happens.
   
Analysts say a successful launch would give the regime a major propaganda boost amid lingering uncertainty following widespread reports that leader Kim suffered a stroke last August.
   
The launch aims to persuade the new US administration to open direct talks with Pyongyang, and will strengthen the regime's hand in future negotiations over its nuclear programme, analysts say.
   
The North tested a Taepodong-2 for the first time in July 2006 but it failed after 40 seconds.
   
In Seoul, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak called an emergency meeting of security-related ministers Saturday, a presidential spokesman told AFP.
   
China, the North's sole major ally, is thought likely to block any bid for new UN sanctions.
   
The Security Council could toughen the observance of existing sanctions -- banning trade in missile components, other weapons and luxury goods -- or issue a chairman's statement criticising Pyongyang.
   
If North Korea goes ahead, Bosworth told a Washington news conference, the United States would "consult vigorously" on what action to take.
   
"We believe that a defiance of a UN Security Council resolution is an action that requires that there be some consequences," Bosworth said.
   
But he added that the aim is to get back to the denuclearisation process as soon as possible after the "dust settles."