Tensions Rise Over N. Korean Rocket Launch

The Obama administration's top envoy on North Korea says the country will face consequences should it go ahead with a planned rocket launch in the next week.

Stephen Bosworth provided no specifics on what those consequences might be.

Bosworth urged North Korea to reconsider what the U.S. and others believe will be a cover for a long-range missile test.

Bosworth told reporters Friday that a launch "requires that there be some consequences and that will be our objective."

Bosworth says that after the "dust from the missile settles" he will be keen to get back to stalled six-nation North Korean disarmament tests.

Saturday marks the start of a five-day window during which the North says it will send a communications satellite into orbit.

The U.S. president called the planned launch provocative. And he said at a news conference Friday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that the threat of it has put "enormous strains" on international talks over North Korea's disputed nuclear ambitions.

Mr. Obama says the United States has made those points clear to North Korea. But he says that country's response has been unhelpful and the country is using language that led to its isolation. Mr. Obama says North Korea cannot threaten the "safety and security of other countries with impunity."

The reclusive country was pressing ahead with final preparations to blast a multistage rocket over Japan.

Meanwhile, diplomats engaged in a flurry of behind-the-scenes efforts to persuade North Korea to cancel the rocket launch slated for liftoff as early as Saturday.

North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit. The U.S., South Korea and Japan think North Korea is using the launch to test long-range missile technology - a move they have warned would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution banning the North from ballistic activity.

"What is most important is to continue to make diplomatic efforts, concerted efforts, not only Japan, but all countries who have relationships and interests" with North Korea, Yukio Takasu, Japan's U.N. ambassador, said Thursday in New York.

Even China, the North's closest ally, said it was working to avert the launch, while urging restraint from all parties to avoid aggravating an already-tense situation. Chinese President Hu Jintao specifically called for calm from Japan.

After the North has said the rocket's route would take it over Japanese territory and that some debris could fall off its northern coast, Tokyo set in motion a flurry of preparations.

It has deployed warships with anti-missile systems to the area, set up Patriot missile interceptors and established a system to warn residents when the rocket is approaching. Japan says it has no intention of trying to shoot down the rocket itself, which is expected to reach its territory within 10 minutes of the launch.

"It is a threat to the security of Japan," Takasu said, adding that North Korea's latest provocation has "caused serious anxiety" and "raises tensions in our region, and also internationally."

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso told reporters in London on Thursday that a Saturday launch was likely, and a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that Pyongyang was on track for liftoff then, with pre-launch movements similar to the steps taken in advance of its 2006 firing of a Taepodong-2 missile. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.

CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the rocket is on the launch pad, being fueled and could blast off as early as Friday night. It's carrying what the North Koreans call a communications satellite, which probably looks a lot like the one former weapons inspector David Albright once saw in the country.

"It's called Lodestar and it's really just something that goes beep beep beep," Albright told Martin. "It's not a sophisticated satellite by any means."

So why are some of the world's most powerful nations, including the U.S., warning there will be a stern response?

"The trouble is that that same missile can be reconfigured into an intercontinental ballistic missile," Albright said.

That missile could someday fire a nuclear warhead at the westernmost parts of the U.S., but Albright says there's a more immediate concern.

If the launch does proceed, Japan and other nations plan to request an emergency session of the Security Council as soon as this weekend to discuss possible punishment.

North Korea has condemned in advance any efforts to censure it, claiming it has the right to the peaceful use of space, although military experts say the same technology could be used to launch ballistic missiles capable of reaching U.S. territory. Pyongyang is believed to have several nuclear warheads; it is unclear if it has been able to miniaturize them enough to mount on a missile.

It also has ratcheted up its militaristic rhetoric, threatening a "thunderbolt of fire" if Japan were to try to intercept the rocket and warning U.S. ships - dispatched to monitor the launch - to back off or risk getting hit, too.

The issue was top of the agenda when President Obama met Thursday with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London. The White House said they agreed on the need for "a unified response by the international community" if the launch occurs and discussed the North's worrisome nuclear weapons program, too.

In Washington, U.S. lawmakers have urged Mr. Obama to shoot down the rocket if it endangers the United States or its allies. But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the U.S. has no plans to intercept the rocket, though it might consider it if an "aberrant missile" were headed to Hawaii "or something like that."