By Jon Herskovitz and Kim Yeon-hee
SEOUL (Reuters) - Weather conditions that may have delayed North Korea's launch of a rocket, which is widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test, improved on Sunday, reports said.
The United States, Japan and South Korea say the launch of the Taepodong-2 rocket would violate U.N. resolutions. The missile is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.
The North said on Saturday it had completed preparations to put a satellite into space, adding the launch would occur soon.
South Korean officials said high winds and cloudy skies may have caused the North to put off the launch on Saturday, the first day of a five-day window the secretive state announced to the outside world.
North Korea has said the launch would take place between April 4-8 from the hours of 3:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. British time.
The North's KCNA news agency predicted clearer skies and lower winds on Sunday around its Musudan-ri missile base, according to reports monitored in Seoul.
Experts have said clear visibility would help North Korea, with limited radar capabilities, monitor the flight.
The base is located in the northeast of the country, about 850 km (530 miles) from the Japanese coast.
With a range of 6,700 km (4,200 miles), the Taepodong-2 missile is supposed to fly over Japan, dropping boosters to its west and east on a path that runs southwest of Hawaii.
In its only previous test flight, in July 2006, the missile blew apart about 40 seconds after launch.
Impoverished North Korea, which for years has used military threats to wring concessions from regional powers, has said it had the right to launch the rocket as part of a peaceful space programme and threatened war if it was intercepted.
Japan has dispatched missile intercepting-ships and anti-missile batteries along the projected flight path.
Tokyo said it would not intercept the missile but it was ready to shoot down any debris, such as falling booster stages, that may threaten its territory.
Analysts said a successful launch would help North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 67, shore up support after a suspected stroke in August raised questions about his grip on power.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday the international community would take action if North Korea went ahead with the launch to show Pyongyang it could not act with impunity.
The United States views the launch as a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in 2006 after Pyongyang carried out a nuclear test and other missile exercises.
That resolution, number 1718, demands North Korea "suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile programme."
U.N. Security Council diplomats have told Reuters on condition of anonymity that no country was considering imposing new sanctions but the starting point could be discussing a resolution for the stricter enforcement of earlier sanctions.
Both Russia and China, the latter the nearest the reclusive North has to a major ally, have made clear they would block new sanctions by the Council, where they have veto power.
(Additional reporting by Jack Kim, Editing by Dean Yates)