North Korea Fuels Rocket As South Goes To The Polls In this photo taken Tuesday, April 10, 2012, North Korean guide Kim Won Ho, right, speaks to a foreign journalist near a photo depicting the 2009 satellite rocket launch at the Three Revolutions exhibition hall in Pyongyang, North Korea. PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea on Wednesday readied a historic party conference to bolster its young new leader and began fueling a rocket, defying U.S. calls to cancel the launch in favor of a "better future," AFP reported. The conference of the communist Workers' Party is expected to formally install Kim Jong Eun, who succeeded his late father in December in nuclear-armed North Korea's second dynastic succession, as party secretary-general. It is only the party's fourth-ever special conference and will kick off events leading up to Sunday's 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founding leader Kim Il Sung, the new supremo's grandfather. The North's propaganda machine Wednesday cranked up tributes for Kim Jong Eun, who is in his late 20s. The Workers' Party daily Rodong Sinmun, in an editorial, acclaimed him as a "heaven-sent general and great leader." Tens of thousands in the tightly regimented state have been sprucing up the capital Pyongyang for mass anniversary festivities. The centerpiece of the commemoration is a rocket launch scheduled for between Thursday and Monday. We are injecting fuel as we speak. It has started [and it] will be over in the near future," Paek Chang-Ho, director of North Korea's satellite control center just outside Pyongyang, told foreign journalists Wednesday. North Korea says the rocket will propel a satellite into orbit to collect data on forests and natural resources within its territory. But the West says it is a disguised ballistic missile test, in violation of a United Nations ban, and fears that North Korea will follow up with a third nuclear test. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said North Korea faced a clear choice. "We are consulting closely in capitals and at the United Nations in New York and we will be pursuing appropriate action," she said at a news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, who echoed her remarks. "If North Korea wants a peaceful, better future for their people, it should not conduct another launch that would be a direct threat to regional security," Clinton said. North Korea insists the rocket poses no danger to countries in the region, and says it has every right to carry out the launch. The events in the North came as South Koreans went to the polls Wednesday for the country's general elections, which analysts say will strip President Lee Myung-bak's ruling party of its parliamentary majority. Opposition Democratic United Party spokeswoman Kim Hyun issued a statement in the lead up to the election, urging voters to look at Lee's record dealing with its northern rival, Yonhap reported. "Democracy has retreated, while the economy of the people and inter-Korean relations have broken down during the four years of the Lee Myung-bak government," her statement said. Wednesday's poll will elect the 300 members to the country's national assembly, while the presidential poll will be held later this year.