However, the day's stated 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. timeframe passed without any sign of a launch. North Korea had announced last month the launch would take place sometime between April 4 and 8 during those hours.
Winds reported as "relatively strong" around the northeastern North Korean launch pad in Musudan-ri may have kept the North from launching the rocket Saturday, analyst Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute think tank said.
"North Korea cannot afford a technical failure," he said. "North Korea wouldn't fire the rocket if there's even a minor concern about the weather."
Japan again urged North Korea to refrain from a launch that Washington, Seoul and Tokyo suspect is a guise for testing the regime's long-range missile technology
- a worrying development because North Korea has acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has repeatedly broken promises to shelve its nuclear program or halt rocket tests.
"The launch will damage peace and stability in Asia. We strongly urge North Korea to refrain from it," chief Japanese government spokesman Takeo Kawamura said Saturday, adding that it would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution barring the country from ballistic missile activity.
President Barack Obama said Friday that a launch would be "provocative" and prompt the U.S. to "take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can't threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity."
Chinese President Hu Jintao, meeting Friday with South Korea's Lee Myung-bak, agreed the launch would "negatively affect peace and stability in Northeast Asia and there should be a discussion among related countries" after it takes place, Lee's office said.
"Respective nations made efforts to urge North Korea to refrain from the launch. But if North Korea really plans to launch, it is very regrettable," Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone told reporters Saturday.
U.N. Security Council diplomats said a draft resolution was circulating that could reaffirm and tighten enforcement of the demands and sanctions of a resolution passed in October 2006 after a North Korean nuclear test.
Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, promised consequences if the launch goes ahead but a strong united response might be elusive since China and Russia hold veto power in the council and could argue that nonmilitary space missions are exempt.
Taking no chances, Japan deployed warships and Patriot missile interceptors off its northern coast to shoot down any wayward rocket parts that the North has said might fall over the area, saying it is only protecting its territory and has no intention of trying to shoot down the rocket itself.
North Korea threatened retaliation against any interception of the satellite, telling Japan such a move would mean "war," and said American U-2 spy planes would be shot down if they broach its airspace.
