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A North Korean mouthpiece in Japan said Wednesday the U.S. fabricated stories of an imminent ballistic missile test-launch by Pyongyang but hinted the North may halt the launch all the same. "North Korea's Taepodong-2 missile is a fabrication to mislead the public,” wrote the Chosun Shinbo, published by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan or Chongryon.

In an article titled “Controversy over Taepodong missiles is a concoction of the U.S.' own making”, the daily said a multi-stage rocket launched on Aug. 31, 1998 was also not a Taepodong-1 missile but rather “North Korea's very first satellite.” It said North Korea was merely “exercising its sovereign rights by possessing a satellite.”

The newspaper, which is believed to be cleared with Pyongyang, said the imminent launch was that of a Gwangmyeongseong-2 satellite on a Baekdusan-2 rocket and “can take place anytime. It may come “in a month or in a year.”

Experts say that can be interpreted as meaning that the North will not fire the missile now but will want to negotiate. "The North wants to say that the U.S. and Japan are misleading the public by defining the situation as a crisis and that it wants dialogue,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University. "In the end, the North is likely to put a moratorium on its missile launch and engage in negotiations.

The Chosun Shinbo recalls that North Korea invited the U.S. representative to six-party talks on its nuclear program, Christopher Hill, to Pyongyang early this month. "It does not make sense that the U.S. made no comment on the North's invitation and discussed first what response to take with other nations," it said. That, too, suggests North Korea is after dialogue, observers say.

"North Korea needs rice and fertilizer, and it will take into account that a missile launch will make it difficult for South Korea to provide those desperately needed goods," a Unification Ministry official said. Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok on Wednesday met with the opposition Grand National Party leadership and said, "If North Korea pushes ahead with its missile launch, it will affect our plan to provide rice and fertilizer." Lee promised a “limited but clear” response.

Pyongyang asked the South for 500,000 tons of rice and 100,000 tons of fertilizer at the inter-Korean ministerial meeting in Pyongyang in April. The request is to be discussed further in the next ministerial talks in July. The government has reportedly concluded that a missile launch would jeopardize the meeting.

Meanwhile, the deputy chief of North Korea's UN mission Han Song-ryol told Yonhap on Tuesday, "We know what the U.S. is concerned about." Han said Pyongyang’s position was “that we need to conduct negotiations to resolve such concerns.” Han also dismissed remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that a missile launch would violate a moratorium agreed in the six-party talks in Beijing last September. "The so-called moratorium is only effective when North Korea and the U.S. are engaged in dialogue,” Han said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )