"We want to seek their self-restraint until the last minute," Noda told reporters as he arrived for talks with a special taskforce set up to handle Japan`s response to the planned launch.
"But we want to be fully prepared for any possible contingency," Noda said.
Poor but nuclear-armed North Korea has said it plans to launch a satellite between Thursday and Monday to mark the centenary of the birth of late founding president Kim Il-Sung.
Western critics see the launch as a thinly veiled missile test banned by US Security Council resolutions.
Tokyo has deployed missile defence systems to intercept and destroy the rocket if it looks set to fall on Japan, much as it did in 2009 before Pyongyang`s last long-range rocket launch. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
