SSL certificate verification failure when attempting to register against RHN

Issue

• System was previously registered to Satellite and now needs to be registered with RHN
• Attempts to register system against RHN via https fails with The SSL certificate failed verification.
• Error as observed in /var/log/up2date file when trying to register the client:

[Mon Aug  5 10:30:56 2013] up2date
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/rhnreg_ks", line 219, in <module>
    cli.run()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhncli.py", line 84, in run
    sys.exit(self.main() or 0)
  File "/usr/sbin/rhnreg_ks", line 89, in main
    rhnreg.getCaps()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnreg.py", line 249, in getCaps
    s.capabilities.validate()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnserver.py", line 160, in __get_capabilities
    self.registration.welcome_message()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnserver.py", line 68, in __call__
    raise up2dateErrors.SSLCertificateVerifyFailedError()
<class 'up2date_client.up2dateErrors.SSLCertificateVerifyFailedError'>: The SSL certificate failed verification.

• Error when running rhn_check after the system is registered:

# rhn_check -vvv:
...
ERROR: SSL errors detected
[('SSL routines', 'SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE', 'certificate verify failed')]
...

• Error when registering RHEL 6.4 system to RHN:

Traceback (most recent call last):
       File "/usr/share/rhn/virtualization/poller.py", line 308, in ?
         _send_notifications(cached_state)
       File "/usr/share/rhn/virtualization/poller.py", line 251, in
    _send_notifications
         plan.execute()
       File "/usr/share/rhn/virtualization/notification.py", line 76, in
    execute
         server.registration.virt_notify(systemid, self.__items)
       File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnserver.py", line 64, in __call__
         raise up2dateErrors.SSLCertificateVerifyFailedError()
    up2date_client.up2dateErrors.SSLCertificateVerifyFailedError: The
    certificate is expired. Please ensure you have the correct certificate and
    your system time is correct.