Manila – The Philippine government said Thursday it anticipated US help to track a North Korean long-range rocket, part of which is expected to land off the Philippines.

“Of course we need the help of the United States to monitor the path because we don’t have that capability,” Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told reporters.

“But with our alliances, we will be provided with the necessary information. We should know the details so that we will know how to inform and warn our people who will be in the (rocket’s) path,” he said.

North Korea announced last week it would launch the rocket to place a satellite in orbit between April 12 and 16, insisting it was for peaceful space research.

But the United States and other nations see the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test, and say that it would breach a UN ban on North Korean missile launches.

A previous North Korean long-range rocket in 2009 flew over Japanese territory and the boosters landed safely in waters off Japan.

More