North Korea Proceeding with Sattelite Test Launching

North Korea is closing two of its air routes from April 4 to 8 to give way for its ‘communication satellite launch’, South Koreans said Sunday.

The Manila Times reports:

The North’s air route traffic control center informed its South Korean counterpart Saturday of the temporary closure, the South’s ministry of land, transport and maritime affairs said in a statement.

The two affected air routes, linking the North to the Russian port city of Vladivostok and to Japan, will remain closed for five hours from 11a.m. everyday during the five days, the statement said.

The US, South Korea and Japan are opposed to the plan and urge North Korea to abort the ‘satellite launch’, saying that it is a pretext to test-fire a long range missile capable of reaching Alaska.

Japan and the US have announced that they are ready to shoot the North Korean missile if indeed they will proceed with the launch. The US said it is capable of intercepting the North Korean missile.

On the other hand, North Korea said that any attempt to shoot down the missiles will be considered an act of war

In a related development, US destroyers are now in the Sea of Japan to detect and trace the North Korean rocket.

Yonhap news agency said:

One of the destroyers is the 9,200-tonne USS John McCain with the Aegis combat system that allows it to simultaneously track over 100 targets from more than 190 kilometers.The destroyer also carries a number of Standard Missile-3 (SM-3), which makes up the backbone of the US naval missile defense