"I'm sure there's been some help coming from China. I don't know, you know, the exact extent of that," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress last spring.

The Navy has dispatched two warships to the region that are equipped to track whatever North Korea may attempt to launch.

The United States considers the launch destabilizing to the region and the "international security environment," Locklear said.

"Our assessment is that their desire to continue down this road is motivated by their desire to ensure that their capability -- and they're now a self-proclaimed nuclear state -- their ability to be able to demonstrate to the world that they have the capacity to be able to build missiles and have the missile technology to be able to use it in ways of their choosing down the road," Locklear said.

Wright said relations on the Korean Peninsula seem to be driving the schedule of the launch, not global politics or scientific advancements by its rocket engineers.

He explained that developments by South Korea are likely also contributing to the rush to launch.

"South Korea has for a number of years been trying to launch their own satellite ... they were supposed to have tried a launch on November 29," Wright said.

South Korea "had technical problems and postponed that until spring, But clearly from North Korea's point of view, if they could launch a satellite before South Korea that would be a real feather in their cap," he said.