South Korean Government To Monitor Possible Rocket Launch Of North Korea During Holiday

The South Korean Government announced Friday that it will monitor North Korea's possible possible rocket launch this month. Yonhap News Agency reported Friday that the government will be on high alert during the Lunar New Year's celebration amid north's provocations.

Just recently, North Korea, in a letter to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said it plans to launch a long-range missile between Feb. 8 and 25.

"It is my pleasure to inform you of the decision of the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to launch earth observation satellite 'Kwangmyongsong' pursuant to the national space development program," said North Korea's Maritime Administration director-general Jon Ki Chol, using the official name of the country.

On the other hand, South Korea had warned the North against the launch of the long-range missile, adding that such act would pose a serious threat to South Korea and the world.

"We warn that if North Korea proceeds with a long-range missile launch, the international society will ensure that the North pays searing consequences for it as the launch would constitute a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula, the region and the world," senior South Korean presidential official Cho Tae Yong said.

An official at the Blue House said South Korean President Park Geun Hye will be updated by her staff regularly regarding North Korea's movements with regard to the presumed rocket launch over the holidays.

"All kinds of measures will be reviewed if North Korea pushes forward with the missile launch," the official said.

Aside from that, the South Korean government added it will run an urgent work system to observe the situation from Monday until Wednesday.

"The Unification Ministry is keeping close contact with a South Korean office at a joint industrial park in North Korea's border city of Kaesong and local companies running factories there," spokesman Jeong Joon Hee said in a press conference.

He went on, "The government will continue to take steps to ensure the safety of South Koreans at the Kaesong Industrial Complex."

The New York Times reported Thursday that possible signs of preparations for the planned rocket launch have been detected in North Korea. According to reports, there had been an increase in vehicle activity near a launch site in the country.

A website that uses satellite imagery to evaluate the activities at the Tongchang-ri launch site and other sites reveleaed that there has been an increase in the number of vehicles operating around the launch site's Horizontal Processing Building.

"Once received, they are assembled in the horizontal position to test all connections, perform final testing of subsystems and prepare the stages for mounting on the launchpad," said a report posted on 38 North Thursday.