North Korea’s five-day window to launch a rocket opened with no confirmed firing, but Asian countries remained on alert as Washington rallied world opinion against the communist state

North Korea's five-day window to launch a rocket opened Thursday with no confirmed firing, but Asian countries remained on alert as Washington rallied world opinion against the communist state, AFP reported.
  
The morning timeframe in which North Korea plans to launch its 30-metre (100-foot) rocket came and went Thursday with no sign of liftoff from a newly built space centre on the country's northwestern Yellow Sea coast.
  
But the North says the Unha-3 (Galaxy-3) rocket, ostensibly carrying a satellite payload, could go up any day between now and Monday to coincide with Sunday's centenary of the birth of its founding leader Kim Il-Sung.
  
North Korea says its rocket launch is not a banned missile test and that it has every right to send the satellite up, as it promotes the untested leadership of Jong-Un, who succeeded his late father Kim Jong-Il in December.

North Korea says it has invited between 150 and 200 foreign journalists to watch the rocket launch and the weekend commemorations, the largest number of overseas media ever invited to the reclusive state. North Korea says the rocket will place a satellite in orbit for peaceful research purposes, promoting the Kim dynasty's goal for the malnourished country to attain the rank of a "powerful and prosperous state" this year.