South Korea issued a warning to Pyongyang today that it could face fresh UN sanctions if it goes ahead with a planned rocket launch, as spy satellites revealed part of a long-range rocket on the North's launch pad.

north korea missile taepodong Global concern has been mounting over North Korea's announcement that it will launch a communications satellite between April 4 and 8.

The United States, Japan and South Korea believe Pyongyang is actually testing a long-range Taepodong-2 missile that could, in theory, reach Alaska.

In Seoul, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan cautioned that should the rocket launch go ahead, the North - one of the world's most impoverished countries - would face new UN sanctions.

"It is common sense to go back into a sanctions mode after North Korea's rocket launch," Yu said in an interview published today in JoongAng , a newly-launched weekly newspaper in Seoul.

"When there is a violation of the UN Security Council resolution, we just cannot go (on) as if nothing happened."

UN Security Council Resolution 1718 was passed in 2006 to press the North to halt nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, but sanctions have been suspended or loosely applied since Pyongyang joined six-way disarmament talks.

Seoul, Tokyo demanding 'strong' measures

The North said last week that any United Nations discussion of its upcoming rocket launch would cause the breakdown of the denuclearisation talks between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

Yu admitted the five states were yet to agree on "the degree of the penalty" to be imposed on North Korea should it go ahead with a rocket launch, but he said he was confident a compromise would be reached at the UN.

He said South Korea and Japan were demanding "strong" measures, the United States is focused more on "dialogue", while Russia and China remain "cool" on the issue of implementing sanctions.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported today that spy satellites had photographed the nose cone of a long-range North Korean rocket on its launch pad.

"But it is impossible to tell what object has been loaded onto the round-shaped (rocket) top - a satellite or a warhead," an unnamed government source told Yonhap .

South Korea's defence ministry declined to comment on the report.

Pyongyang has resisted pressure to call off the launch and warned that any attempt to shoot down the rocket would be regarded as an act of war. - AFP