SEOUL — The South Korean military is poised to shoot down a North Korean rocket should it stray into South Korean territory during a launch planned for next month, a defense ministry official here in Seoul said March 26.

The response comes as Seoul’s intelligence authorities confirmed that the main body of a North Korean Unha-3 rocket was moved to a new missile site at Dongchang-ri in northwestern North Korea. Dongchang-ri, in North Pyeongan Province, is significantly larger than the one in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyeong Province, where North Korea test-fired the Taepodong-2 missile in 2009.

The launch angle will be the first to take a southern trajectory and marks the first time a rocket has been launched from this facility.

North Korea plans to fire the rocket to put a satellite into orbit between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founding leader Kim Il-sung.

However, the international community believes the rocket launch is a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile that could deliver a nuclear warhead to targets in Alaska and Hawaii, as well as other Asia-Pacific nations, such as Australia and Indonesia.

“We’re preparing measures to track the missile’s trajectory and shoot it down if, by any chance, it deviates from the planned route and falls into our territory,” Col. Yoon Won-shik, vice spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, told reporters.

“North Korea’s move is a grave provocation and defiance against the international community,” Yoon said. “Through the rocket launch, we believe, the North is aimed at improving and developing its long-range ballistic missile to deliver nuclear warheads.”

According to South Korean Navy officials, two destroyers, including a 7,600-ton Sejong the Great-class Aegis destroyer, are to be deployed in the West Sea to monitor the missile launch.

If parts of the three-stage North Korean rocket stray from their trajectory and violate South Korea’s territory, the destroyers will fire SM-2 ship-to-air missiles to take them down, a Navy spokesman said.

“The Army will also be ready to fire PAC-2 missiles to intercept parts of the rocket if they fly too close to the South’s territory,” Yoon said. In 2007, South Korea purchased 48 secondhand PAC-2 missile systems from Germany as part of efforts to establish a low-tier air and missile defense system in coordination with ship-based SM-2 missiles and Israel’s Super Green Pine early warning radars.

The North Korean launch site has created new problems for South Korean efforts to intercept and monitor ballistic missiles and rockets. The angle from which the rocket will be launched will make it more difficult to intercept by seaborne ballistic-missile defense systems, said Bruce Bechtol, author of the book, “Defiant Failed State: The North Korean Threat to International Security.”

The new site at Dongchang-ri “can potentially be set up more quickly and denial/deception procedures implemented more effectively than the site at Musudan,” he said. “This impacts on warning time for U.S./[Republic of Korea] policy makers.”

Bechtol said the most important aspect of this launch will not be the southern trajectory, but “seeing if this missile can actually make it through all three stages successfully of the launch cycle.” If successful, this will mean that North Korea will finally have the capability to strike U.S. territory.

U.S. President Barack Obama has renewed his warning against North Korea’s provocations.

“There will be no rewards for provocations. Those days are over,” Obama said March 26 in Seoul. “To the leaders of Pyongyang, I say, this is the choice before you. This is the decision that you must make.”

Obama is attending the two-day Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul. Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders are gathered in South Korea to discuss ways of improving nuclear security and to hold bilateral summit talks on the sidelines. North Korea and Iran are expected to dominate the nuclear agenda at the summit.

After a meeting between Obama and Hu, senior White House aide Ben Rhodes said the Chinese leader indicated to his U.S. counterpart that he took the North Korean nuclear standoff very seriously and was registering his concern with Pyongyang.

“The two leaders agreed to coordinate closely in responding to this potential provocation and registering our serious concern to the North Koreans and, if necessary, consider what steps need to be taken following a potential satellite launch,” Rhodes said.

Wendell Minnick reported from Taipei.

South Korea and Indonesia have established a research centre to study the proposed KF-X indigenous fighter aircraft.

The centre will be located in Daejeon, 160km (99 miles) south of Seoul, said South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

Approximately 100 Korean and 30 Indonesian researchers will work at the centre.

Korea Aerospace Industries and Indonesia's National Defense Research Institute will both contribute personnel to the project, which will look at the design and other core technologies of the proposed stealth aircraft.

DAPA's announcement indicates the long-discussed aircraft programme may finally be getting of the ground.

On 14 July, a story carried by Indonesia's Antara official news agency said the country had confirmed it would participate in the programme, contributing 20% of the development costs.

Antara quoted the secretary general of Indonesia's defence ministry, Erris Heriyanto, as saying development of the KF-X would take place in three stages: technological development over the next two years, engineering and manufacturing and finally production.

The two partners have agreed to produce 150-200 units, of which Indonesia would get 50.

These would be sufficient to equip three combat squadrons, he said.

An Indonesian source told Flightglobal that Jakarta expects KF-X to be ready by 2018.

Jakarta originally signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in KF-X at the 2010 Farnborough air show.

Seoul, apparently interested in reducing its share of the estimated $8 billion in development costs, has also spoken to Turkey. Ankara, however, announced plans for its own indigenous fighter in December 2010.

A southern island with long-standing issues with the mainland; local residents up in arms over the construction of a new, large military base; environmentalists concerned that these plans will disrupt sensitive under sea coral formations.

Another chapter in the unending Okinawa Marine base saga?

No. In this instance the island is Jeju-do off the southern coast of South Korea. The issue is Seoul’s desire to build a major naval base in Gangjeong village on the southern part of the island to serve as a home port for South Korea’s growing fleet of large and sophisticated warships.

Much is made about China’s rapidly expanding navy and ambition to create a fleet capable of projecting power globally. Not so well known is South Korea’s decade-long project to build its own blue water navy. There is nothing particularly secret about South Korea’s naval build up, it just doesn’t get the kind of attention that China’s gets.

This ocean-going force is built around an arsenal of sophisticated guided missile destroyers, including most recently, two 7,600-ton Aegis-equipped monster destroyers with one more under construction , half a dozen 4,500-ton destroyers, submarines and amphibious assault ships.

The Dokdo is the largest warship belonging to any Asian navy east of India

The flagship of this new strategic fleet is an 18,000 ton, flat-topped amphibious assault ship with the pregnant name of Dokdo, after the tiny island in the Sea of Japan that is claimed by both Korea and Japan and which is a frequent source of tensions between the two countries.

The Dokdo is currently larger than anything in the Japanese navy or even the rapidly expanding Chinese navy – or at least until Beijing finally launches its much-talked about aircraft carrier. Indeed, it is the largest warship belonging to any Asian navy east of India.

Although its main armament would be helicopters and marines, it would also be capable of supporting unmanned aircraft in some future conflict. The South Koreans are planning to build several more of this type of vessel, although probably not as large.

The official purpose of this naval buildup by South Korea is, much as in China, to project power beyond its coastline plus being able to participate in international peacekeeping operations and disaster recovery and relief efforts. Several South Korean destroyers participate in the anti-piracy patrols off Somalia’s coast, along with warships from China and Japan.

A more logical explanation would be that, as in China, the expansion and modernization of the fleet is a natural and inevitable growing process of a nation’s armed forces proportional to the rapidly growing size of its economy. Rationales for the expansion are found later.

Tourist on the Jeju island

A naval base on the south side of Jeju is an obvious step in South Korea’s blue water ambitions, as it allows direct access to the open sea. But it is also located about as far away from the sensitive border with North Korea, supposedly South Korea’s true enemy, as one can be and still be in the country.

When completed in 2014, the base will accommodate about 20 of the country’s most modern surface warships and submarines. There is also proposed space to dock two large cruise ships, an apparent sop to locals as it could be argued the new port boosts tourism.

Growing numbers of Chinese are visiting Jeju and would likely formed the bulk of the passengers on the tourist vessels. Seoul probably is not unhappy that thousands of ordinary Chinese will get a good look at Korea’s growing naval might while enjoying beaches and sampling kimchi.

South Korea’s blue water naval strategy developed in the late 1990s, during a period of relatively relaxed relations with North Korea. This was the time of the Sunshine policy of President Kim Dae-jung and his successor.

But unlike China, which has few if any threats along its coastline, North Korea does pose a real menace. That was driven home last year when a North Korean submarine put a torpedo into the South Korean Corvette Choenan, sending her to the bottom along with more than 40 of her crew.

While Seoul was dreaming of grandiose deep sea ambitions, it had taken its eye off the ball and become somewhat lackadaisical about protecting its sensitive northern coastline. And if the events of last year proved anything, it is that one cannot be lackadaisical about the dangerous provocations from the North.

This sobering experience has not immediately altered Seoul’s naval procurement plans, which of course, were longstanding. But one hears less and less about blue water power projection. Last May the government withdrew “Ocean Navy Strategy” as an official rationale for the Jeju naval base (though work proceeds).

Unlike Okinawa, which is mainly a three-cornered dispute between Tokyo, Washington and the people of Okinawa, the Jeju base dispute has attracted more attention from international peace groups, Catholic organizations and other NGOs. Unlike Okinawa, which bristles with military bases there are no major installations on Jeju. Indeed, it likes to bill itself as an “island of peace.”

But like Okinawa, which still harbors resentments toward the mainland, Jeju has its own issues. For Okinawans it was the way they were used as cannon fodder during the last battle of World War II. For Jeju people it is the “4.3 Incident”.

The date refers to a rebellion, probably stoked by the communist Workers’ Party (now the rulers of North Korea but banned in the South, that broke out in April 3, 1948. The army put the rebellion down but it is estimated that 14,000 to 60,000 were killed. Since then South Korea’s military has not been particularly welcome on Jeju.