The North Korean rocket that is fuelled and poised for an imminent launch could fly over Perth, according to projected trajectories captured by an international news crew.
North Korea has opened its doors to foreign media and cameras were able to zoom in on a launch employee observing what appeared to be the planned trajectory of the rocket.
The footage clearly showed two lines of trajectory passing over populated areas of Western Australia.
Amateur satellite watcher Tim Molczan mapped three possible trajectories of the rocket, with two passing over populated regions of Australia's west coast, and a third crossing closer to the centre of the continent, according to blog North Korea Tech.
No debris from the rocket is expected to impact Australia with the first two stages expected to be dropped in waters near South Korea and the Philippines.
The Unha-3 rocket, mounted with an Earth observation satellite, is set to be launched as part of celebrations in the country in the lead up to Sunday, the 100th anniversary of the late President Kim Il Sung's birth.
Sunday will also mark new leader Kim Jong Un's formal ascension in 2011, nearly four months after the death of his father.
Experts say a modified Unha-3 carrier could be used to deliver a nuclear payload.
The United States, Japan, Britain and others say the launch would constitute a provocation and would violate UN Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from developing its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korean space officials call the launch of the rocket a "gift" to Kim Il Sung.
They said on Wednesday that the final step of injecting fuel into the three-stage rocket was underway in the coastal hamlet of Tongchang-ri.
"The launch of the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite is the pride of our nation and of our people," Rim Kwang Myong, a mathematics major at Kim Il Sung University, told The Associated Press.
A live feed at the General Command Centre in the outskirts of Pyongyang showed the rocket on the launch pad covered with a tarp to protect the satellite from the wind.
Paek Chang Ho, chief of the command centre, said the rocket is ready for lift-off as soon as engineers are given the green light.
North Korea has informed international aviation, maritime and telecommunications authorities that the launch would take place between Thursday and Monday.
"We are injecting fuel as we speak," Paek told reporters from a viewing platform in front of a large screen showing the live feed. Sixteen scientists in white lab coats worked at computers below him.
Because liquid rocket fuel is highly volatile and corrosive, its injection into the rocket is usually one of the final steps in the pre-launch process, experts say. But the weather, and particularly the wind, could force delays.
Paek denied on Wednesday that the launch was anything but a peaceful civilian bid to send a satellite into space. He said the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite is designed to send back images and data that will be used for weather forecasts and agricultural surveys.
"Some parties insist our peaceful space program is a missile test," he told foreign reporters given an exclusive tour of the nation's main satellite command centre. "We don't really care what the outside world thinks. This launch is critical to developing our space program and improving our economy."
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday that the launch would be a direct threat to regional security and that the US would pursue "appropriate action" at the Security Council if North Korea goes ahead with it.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8450272/perth-in-firing-line-of-north-korean-rocketPhark
(no bad excuse for a party!)
and perth goes back to the way it always was
dullsville
