Pictures Emerge of N. Korea Launchpad as Warships Move Into Area

New pictures emerged Friday of the launch site from which North Korea plans to fire a rocket in early April, as Japan ordered its military to prepare for a missile intercept and the U.S. moved two warships with technology to track and destroy missiles into the area.The new satellite photographs, taken by GeoEye satellite over the missile facility and posted on Britain's Daily Telegraph Web site, are closer up than those previously released and show the actual launchpad on the country's northeast coast, American intelligence officials say, putting Pyongyang well on track for a launch the U.S. and South Korea warned Thursday would be a major provocation with serious consequences.North Korea has said it will launch a communications satellite April 4-8, and has warned that fragments from the launch could fall into waters off Akita and Iwate prefectures (states) in northern Japan. In response, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters he ordered the deployment of land-to-air and sea-to-air missile interceptors to the area at risk.