With North Korea’s rocket launch imminent, the South Korean government is taking steps to deal with it in coordination with other countries.

Cheong Wa Dae is in close consultation with foreign affairs and security-related government agencies including the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Agency.

The Defense Ministry is reportedly conducting mock drills to intercept the North Korean rocket in case the North fails to put a satellite into orbit and it falls into South Korean territory. The ministry also has plans to evacuate South Korean residents living along the coastline of the West Sea, sources said.

Unification Ministry spokesperson Kim Hyung-suk said the ministry will form an emergency desk on Tuesday to monitor the North’s moves 24 hours a day. Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik repeatedly urged the North to cancel its rocket launch plan, Kim said.

“The North’s launching of a long-range rocket or conducting a nuclear test cannot be deemed as courage. Caring for the welfare of North Korean people is real courage,” Yu was quoted as saying by Kim.

Government officials said coordinated international pressure will be the key response to the North’s rocket launch.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have already established close communication channels last month to share information about the North’s rocket launch.

As the U.S. and its allies say the launch would violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, which bans any launch using ballistic technology, they are likely to call for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss sanctions on the North once Pyongyang goes ahead with its plan.

When the North conducted a second rocket launch in 2009, the U.N. immediately sought sanctions against Pyongyang.

Government officials also consider the possibility of the North’s third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium, not plutonium.

In the first and second nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, respectively, the North tested nuclear programs using plutonium.

Meanwhile, North Korea will reportedly begin fueling a rocket for launch soon, signaling that the provocative move is imminent.

A government official said the North has completed placing all three stages of a long-range rocket into position for a launch. It might have started fueling on will start soon, the official said.

“Considering it takes two to three days to complete fueling, the North may start fueling today or tomorrow,” the unnamed official was quoted by Yonhap News on Monday.

Unlike the Musudan-ri launching facility in the northeastern part of the peninsula, the Tongchang-ri facility ― where the satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 awaits launch ― stores fuel in a basement, making it difficult to observe from a satellite photo, the official said.

Regarding the timing of the rocket launch, the official forecast that it could be April 13 or 14, prior to the centenary of late founder Kim Il-sung’s April 15 birth, if the weather allows.

North Korea plans to hold the Workers’ Party Conference on April 11 and the Supreme People’s Assembly on April 13 to give new leader Kim Jong-un the highest post of the ruling party and the state, and declare 2012 the initial year of becoming a “power state” on April 15.

Foreign journalists on Sunday have visited the launching station, Pyongyang’s state media Korea Central News Agency said Monday.

The satellite will be used for research data on the distribution of forestry resources in the distribution of forestry resources in the country, severity of natural disasters, crop estimates, weather forecasts and survey of natural resources during polar orbit, it said.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)