North Korea has notified neighbors including Japan of the trajectory of the rocket it plans to launch this month, a report said Sunday, after international condemnation of the move by the nuclear-armed state.

The communist North announced on Saturday it would launch a rocket sometime between December 10 and 22 -- its second long-range rocket launch this year after a much-hyped but botched attempt in April.

Japan will postpone talks with North Korea after it announced plans to launch a rocket later this month, Kyodo news agency said Saturday, days before diplomats from the two countries were due to meet.

North Korea will launch a rocket between December 10 and 22, said official Korean Central News Agency earlier on Saturday, in what will be the country's second long-range rocket launch this year following a much-hyped but failed attempt in April.

The United States urged North Korea on Saturday to scrap plans to launch a rocket later this month, warning the "highly provocative" move would destabilize the region.

"Devoting scarce resources to the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles will only further isolate and impoverish North Korea," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council warned North Korea against carrying out a long-range missile test after fresh analysis of new satellite imagery confirmed apparent North Korean preparations for an imminent test.

"We all agree it would be extremely inadvisable to proceed with the test," the head of the North Korea sanctions committee at the council, Portuguese Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, told reporters in New York on Thursday.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday warned North Korea against carrying out what the international community believes could be an imminent long-range missile test.

"We all agree it would be extremely inadvisable to proceed with the test," the head of the North Korea sanctions committee at the council, Portuguese Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, told reporters.

South Korean space officials suspended a crucial rocket launch Thursday, after a technical problem halted the countdown just 17 minutes before the scheduled blast-off.

"It is impossible to resume the launch sequence today," Deputy Science Minister Cho Yul-Rae told reporters at the Naro Space Center on the south coast.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has replaced his defense chief with a hawkish general in a shakeup apparently aimed at tightening his grip over the military, a report said Thursday.

Vice Marshal Kim Jong-Gak was sacked as defense minister after just seven months in office, Yonhap News Agency quoted an unnamed senior South Korean presidential official as saying.

A key U.N. committee on Tuesday passed resolutions condemning human rights abuses by North Korea and Iran amid growing Western pressure for action.

An annual vote on North Korea was passed by consensus for the first time, with not even close ally China voting against.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has been named 2012's "Sexiest Man Alive", China's Communist Party newspaper proclaimed Tuesday after treating a spoof award by satirical U.S. website The Onion as genuine.

The People's Daily website published two paragraphs lifted word-for-word from The Onion, along with a photo gallery of 55 images of Kim, who took over as the North's leader after his father Kim Jong-Il died last December.

North Korea could carry out a long-range missile test in the next three weeks, with new satellite images showing increased launch site activity, according to satellite operator DigitalGlobe Inc.

The global provider of commercial high-resolution earth imagery said Monday that the new pictures showed significant movement at North Korea's Sohae (West Sea) Satellite Launch Station.