WORLD BRIEFING / NORTH KOREA

South Korea, the United States and Japan warned that North Korea’s planned rocket launch would violate a U.N. resolution, a news report said.

North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and 8 as part of a peaceful bid to develop its space program. Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Tokyo, said the planned launch is part of an economic development project.

But some governments suspect that North Korea will test technology for a long-range missile capable of striking Alaska. They say a launch is banned under a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution prohibiting ballistic activity by North Korea, and have warned that it would invite international sanctions.