North Korea consider delaying rocket lunch.

North Korea considersdelaying rocket launch Associated Press - 2 hrs ago SEOUL, South Korea (AP) —North Korea may postponethe controversial launch ofa long-range rocket that had been slated for liftoff as early as this week, state media said Sunday, as international pressure on Pyongyang to cancel the provocative move intensified. Scientists have been pushing forward with final preparations for the launch from a west coast site, slated to take place as early as Monday, but are considering"readjusting" the timing, an unidentified spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology told North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency. It was unclear whether diplomatic intervention or technical glitches were behind the delay. A brief KCNA dispatch said scientists and technicians were discussing whether to set new launch dates but did not elaborate. Word of a possible delay comes just days after satellite photos indicated that snow may have slowed launch preparations, and as officials in Washington, Seoul, Tokyo, Moscow and elsewhere urged North Korea to cancel a liftoff widely seen as a violation of bans against missile activity. Commercial satellite imagery taken by GeoEye on Dec. 4 and shared Friday with The AssociatedPress by the 38 North andNorth Korea Tech websitesshowed the Sohae site northwest of Pyongyang covered with snow. The road from the main assembly building to the launch pad showed no fresh tracks, indicating that the snowfall may havestalled the preparations. However, analysts believed rocket preparations would have been completed on time forliftoff as early as Monday. North Korea announced earlier this month that it would launch a three-stage rocket mounted with a satellite from its Sohae station southeast of Sinuiju sometime between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. Pyongyang calls it a peaceful bid to send an observational satellite intospace, its second attempt this year. The launch announcement captured global headlines because of its timing: SouthKorea and Japan hold key elections this month, President Barack Obama begins his second term next month and China has just formed a new leadership. North Koreans also have begun a mourning period for late leader Kim Jong Il, who died on Dec. 17, 2011. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington was "deeply concerned" about the launch, and urged foreign ministers from NATO and Russia to demand that Pyongyang cancel its plans. U.S. and others said the launch would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from nuclear and missile activity because the rocket shares the same technology used for firing a long-range missile. North Korea has unveiled missiles designed to targetU.S. soil and has tested two atomic bombs in recentyears, but has not shown yet that it has mastered the technology for mounting a nuclear warhead to a long-range missile. Six-nation negotiations to offer NorthKorea much-needed aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament have been stalled since 2009. China, the North's main allyand aid provider, noted its"concern" after North Korea declared its plans. Itacknowledged North Korea's right to develop its space program but saidthat had to be harmonized with restrictions including those set by the U.N. Security Council. In Seoul, officials at the Defense Ministry, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Foreign Ministry said Sunday they couldn't immediately find what mightbe behind the possible delay. North Korea may hold off ifWashington actively engages Pyongyang in dialogue and promises to ship stalled food assistance to the country, said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Koreanstudies at Seoul's DonggukUniversity. In February, the U.S. agreed to provide 240,000metric tons of food aid to North Korea in exchange for a freeze in nuclear andmissile activities. The deal collapsed after North Korea attempted to launch a long-range rocket in April. That rocket broke upseconds after liftoff. Analyst Baek Seung-joo ofthe South Korean state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul said China must have sent a "very strong" message calling for the North to cancel the launch plans. "North Korea won't say it would delay the launch dueto foreign pressure so that's why they say scientists and technicians are considering delaying it," he said.