North Korea says it is preparing to launch a satellite, but both Seoul and Washington believe the real purpose is to test a long-range Taepodong-2 missile that could in theory reach Alaska.

Pray for this situation to be in God's hands and his will to be done. Pray for the protection of Alaska (guidance for Palin) and its people. Most of all, pray for our leaders and for them to have wisdom and can love their enemies and forgive as they would want to be forgiven. Save us Dear Jesus. Amen

The scoop -

North Korea says it is preparing to launch a satellite, but both Seoul and Washington believe the real purpose is to test a long-range Taepodong-2 missile that could in theory reach Alaska.

The North's military General Staff warned it would retaliate "with prompt counter-strikes by the most powerful military means" for any attempt to intercept it.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," the military said.

Japan warned last week that it is prepared to shoot down any rocket headed toward its territory, and US officials have said they have the capability to knock out any missile.

Analysts suspect the North is taking a tougher stance as it competes for US President Barack Obama's attention with other world hotspots.

It is also angry at South Korea's conservative President Lee Myung-Bak, who has scrapped his predecessors' policy of offering virtually unconditional aid to Pyongyang.

The US and South Korea say a launch for any purpose would breach a United Nations resolution passed after the last missile launch in 2006, the same year the North staged an underground nuclear test.

"Whether they describe it as a satellite launch or something else makes no difference, they would be in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718," the new US envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said Monday.

He has been holding talks in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul on ways to persuade the North to push ahead with a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal and to hold back from firing a rocket.

Bosworth said the five parties negotiating with Pyongyang strongly agree it would be "extremely ill-advised" for it to fire a rocket.

The nuclear talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, are deadlocked by disputes over how the North's declared atomic activities should be verified.

"We are hopeful that we can see the resumption of the six-party process in the relatively near future," Bosworth told reporters after a day of talks with senior South Korean officials.

Another note: So is this Barrack Hussein Obama's way to save the economy? war - used as a tool to boost or as a way to divert attention to his destruction of our life, liberty and happiness or something because there are so many empty promises he made us and now shame he must face each day he looks in the mirror to face the evil he personifies. Pray he falls broken before God and asks Jesus to be his savior, because God knows Obama can not save the world, he can not even save himself. We all need Jesus.