North Korea says it is to launch a long-range rocket later this month.

The launch, planned for between between December 10 and December 22, will heighten already strained tensions with South Korea ahead of its presidential election on December 19.

North Korea tried in April to launch a long-range rocket but it broke apart shortly after lift off.

The North’s Korean Committee for Space Technology said that it had looked at the mistakes made in the April launch and had improved the rocket.

“Scientists and technicians of the DPRK analysed the mistakes that were made during the previous April launch and deepened the work of improving the reliability and precision of the satellite and carrier rocket, thereby rounding off the preparations for launch,” it said.

The much-hyped rocket was intended to put a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite into orbit, it said.

The US and United Nations insisted it was a disguised ballistic missile test using a three-stage variant of the Taepodong-2 inter-continental ballistic missile.

The April test put a halt to the latest international effort to engage with North Korea, with the US calling off plans to deliver badly needed food assistance.

Saturday’s announcement ended weeks of intense speculation, based on satellite image analysis, that the North was preparing a fresh launch from its Sohae satellite launch station.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council had cautioned Pyongyang against going ahead with another launch, saying it would be “extremely inadvisable”.

South Korea has reacted angrily to its neighbour’s move, saying the “so-called rocket launch” is a long-range missile that violates a UN ban.

South Korean officials have accused North Korea of trying to influence its presidential election with what they consider provocations meant to put pressure on voters and on the US.

Some analysts, however, question whether North Korean scientists have corrected whatever caused the misfire of its last rocket.

“Preparing for a launch less than a year after a failure calls into question whether the North could have analysed and fixed whatever went wrong,” wrote physicist David Wright, on the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

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