- The launch is scheduled to take place between Thursday and Monday, North Korea says
- A launch would breach U.N. Security Council resolutions
- The U.S. and South Korea would consider a launch a "grave provocation"
Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) -- North Korea said the assembly of the satellite and rocket it plans to launch within the next week should be completed Tuesday, setting the stage for a move that has been widely criticized by other nations.
The controversial launch will take place sometime between Thursday and Monday, the previously outlined window, Ryu Kun Chol, a senior North Korean space official said at a news conference in Pyongyang.
North Korea says the operation, announced last month, 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.
Guided launch pad tour in North Korea 
Japan's defense against N. Korea rocket The act of 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.
The South Korean defense minister, Kim Kwan-jin, discussed the upcoming rocket launch with his U.S. counterpart, Leon Panetta, by phone, an official from the South Korean Defense Ministry official said Tuesday.
Kim and Panetta both agreed that the launch would be a "grave provocation," the official said.
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.
CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.
