Tongchang-ri, North Korea (CNN) -- As North Korea presses forward with a controversial rocket launch, journalists were granted a rare glimpse Sunday of the reclusive country's preparations. 
 
 CNN was part of a group taken to the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, in the northwest part of the country. 
 
 North Korea announced last month that it would launch a rocket carrying a satellite between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the Communist state. His birthday on April 15, known as the "Day of the Sun," is a key public holiday in the North Korean calendar. 
 
 Pyongyang says the operation is for peaceful purposes, but Japan, the United States and South Korea see the launch as a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test. 
 
 Firing the long-range rocket would breach U.N. Security Council resolutions, and Washington has suspended a recent deal to provide food aid to North Korea as a result. Japan has said it will shoot down any part of the rocket that enters its territory. 
 
 "If you look for yourselves with your own eyes, then you can judge whether it's a ballistic missile, or whether it's a launch vehicle to put a satellite into orbit," Jang Myong Jin, head of the launch site, said through a translator. "That's why we've invited you to this launch site." 
 
 Journalists -- who were not allowed to take laptops or cell phones to the site, but were permitted to film -- were shown the control center and the satellite that officials said would be shot into space. 
 
 The rocket itself is 30 meters, or about 100 feet, long. It was white, with some red and blue paint. 
 
 International leaders have urged North Korea to cancel the launch, but Pyongyang has refused to back down, insisting that the operation is for scientific purposes. 
 
 The last time Pyongyang carried out what it described as a satellite launch, in April 2009, the U.N. Security Council condemned the action and demanded that it not be repeated. 
 
 An independent European analyst who visited the launch site said he saw nothing obvious that raised red flags. 
 
 "I don't know what they want to do in the future, but today what we see is a space launcher," said Christian Lardier. ||||| (2nd LD) N. Korea's rocket fueling imminent 
 
 SEOUL, April 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is expected to begin fueling a long-range rocket soon, the final step toward its launch set for as early as this week, a South Korean official said Monday."North Korea has only fueling remaining after completing the installation of three stages of boosters on a launch pad," the official said on condition of anonymity. "Fueling is expected to begin soon, considering it usually takes two to three days."Pyongyang says the Unha-3 rocket will blast off between April 12-13 to put what it claims is a satellite into orbit. South Korea, the United States and other regional powers view the claim as a pretext to disguise a banned missile test.In an attempt to bolster its case, the North has invited foreign journalists and experts to observe the launch. Reporters from more than 20 media firms have arrived in the communist nation, according to state media.Foreign journalists and space experts have toured the launching station in the country's northwestern area of Cholsan, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday.North Korea told them Sunday that the satellite will gather necessary information on the distribution of forestry resources in the country, severity of natural disasters, crop estimates, weather forecasts and survey of natural resources during polar orbit."Seeing the satellite and carrier rocket ... they had deep understanding of the fact that the satellite launch is aimed at space development and use for peaceful purposes from A to Z," the Korean Central News Agency said in an English-language dispatch.The dispatch also claimed the foreign journalists and space experts "admired to learn that the North's space science and technology has entered the practical stage of satellite."It also said the satellite launch "is an inspiring deed and an event of historic significance of the nation."The rocket launch is timed to celebrate the April 15 centennial of the birth of North Korea's late founder Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.Weather is expected to be a key factor in North Korea's decision on when to launch the rocket. Considering that the regime has said it will accept foreign journalists until Thursday, a launch could take place on Friday or Saturday.Further adding to tensions, North Korea is also believed to be readying for a nuclear test.Satellite images show the communist nation digging a new tunnel underground in the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country's northeast, where it conducted two previous nuclear tests, first in 2006 and then in 2009, according to South Korean officials.The construction is believed to be in its final stage, the official said.Commercial satellite imagery showed piles of earth and sand at the entrance of a tunnel in the Punggye-ri site. The soil is believed to have been brought to the site to plug the tunnel, one of final steps before carrying out a nuclear test blast.South Korean officials said they cannot rule out the possibility of North Korea setting off a nuclear device built with highly enriched uranium this time, unlike two previous tests where plutonium was used.The North's nuclear and missile programs have long been a regional security concern. The country is believed to have advanced ballistic missile technology, though it is still not clear whether it has mastered the technology to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.(END)
– North Korea looks to be preparing a third nuclear test, the AP reports: New photos show work on an underground tunnel—at the site of two earlier such tests—is nearly finished, say South Korean intelligence officials. "North Korea is covertly preparing for a third nuclear test, which would be another grave provocation," says the intelligence report, noting that dirt piled at the tunnel's opening indicates there's a "high possibility" Pyongyang could launch the test—soon. That's because plugging tunnels with dirt was the final step taken during its two previous nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri site, in 2006 and 2009. Meanwhile, the North is almost ready to start fueling a long-range rocket; it will be launched April 12-13, according to Pyongyang. While officials there say the rocket's goal is to send a satellite into space, the US fears the country is preparing a prohibited missile launch. The North has aimed to reassure journalists by inviting them to view preparations, Yonhap News reports. "If you look for yourselves with your own eyes, then you can judge whether it's a ballistic missile, or whether it's a launch vehicle to put a satellite into orbit," the launch site's boss told the group of the 100-foot-long red- and blue-painted rocket, according to CNN journalists who were present.